Ciruce Movahedi-Lankarani

Ciruce Movahedi-Lankarani is the Farhang Foundation Early Career Chair in Iranian Studies and an assistant professor of Middle East studies and environmental studies at the University of Southern California. Ciruce studies the interconnections between technology, development, and the environment in the Middle East and beyond. Supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Social Science Research Council, his first book Accelerant: Energy Infrastructures and the Natural World in Making Modern Iran was published by Stanford University Press in 2026. Tracing the transformation of natural gas from a waste product into Iran’s primary energy source, Accelerant offers a history of industrialization and anti-colonial developmentalism in the country, revealing how nature shaped the rise of voracious fossil-fuel consumption in the Global South. Ciruce has also published in International Journal of Middle East Studies, Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, and Iranian Studies. The best place to find him is in the mountains.