Welcome!
Thank you for stopping by! I appreciate the opportunity to share my writing with you. I'm a professor in the School of Education and Social Policy at Northwestern University, where I teach and do research at the intersections of technology, education, culture, and politics. I'm also a writer, with my first co-authored book, Revolutionary Engineers, out this Spring with MIT Press. I am inspired by other great scholar-writers, like one of my favorites, Imani Perri. In one of her recent interviews, she remarked it wasn't until she published Breathe: A Letter To My Sons that she felt she had earned the right to call herself a writer. That humility and respect for writing as a craft really resonates with me.
Seeing, recognizing, and spreading opportunity is fundamental to who I am. When my parents immigrated to the US from Iran, they gifted me a tremendous opportunity to have a childhood free from war and oppression. As a husband and father, I am presented with the beautiful opportunity to create my own family. As a professor at a university, I believe deeply in the responsibility of education to expand opportunities to learning that unlocks potential, identity, imagination, and creativity.
This is an opportunity—my opportunity—to experiment, make connections, share reflections, take risks, and have fun writing in a medium far removed from the formalities of academic discourse. And, of course, this is an opportunity for me to connect with you, my readers.
So why subscribe?
You’ll receive:
Essays and reflections related to my life as an academic and scholar. The turbulent present and uncertain future of K12 and higher education; the experience of writing and publishing my first book; and encounters with inspiring scholars, artists, and thinkers on the cutting edge of culture, technology, and politics. Those kinds of things.
Stories about family, parenting, and culture. I’m a dad, or as my kids call me, “Baba.” I have three young sons and 2 adult stepdaughters. I’m an immigrant from Iran married to a Black woman from the Bay Area. Mixed-race kids, blended family, work-life balance, all that good stuff.
Outside of my work and parenting, I love comedy, politics, and food. Lucky for me, I live in Evanston, just outside of Chicago, a top-rate city for all three of those things. I co-host the PCWB podcast, which gives me the opportunity to talk with some of the smartest and funniest people in the world. I'll write about those things and whatever else my heart desires when inspiration strikes.
For now, I am keeping all posts available at no cost to the reader. So, don't miss your opportunity to subscribe and join me on this journey. Thank you.
Sepehr
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