How did Iran’s dominant narratives over labor evolve since the 1979 revolution? What paved the way to neoliberal discourses, particularly since the 1990s?
From Precarious Workers and Neoliberal Narratives in Post-revolutionary Iran: Top-down Strategies and Bottom-up Responses, by M. Stella Morgana, Middle East Institute (MAP), 2020.
Peer-reviewed articles and chapters
- 2025. SPECIAL ISSUE. “The Gig Economy and Women Workers in the Middle East,” Global Labour Journal. (2025) Vol. 16 No. 1 Guest editorial available here
- 2025, forthcoming. “Labour Rights in Post-Revolutionary Iran,” in Hadi Enayat and Mirjam Künkler eds., The Rule of Law in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Power, Institutions, and Prospects for Reform, (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming in June).
- 2024. "AI and academic sources: challenges, biases, risks and the question of knowledge production” in Challenges and Opportunities of Using Generative AI for Research: Opening the Discussion, by Goretti, L., Küsters, A., Morgana, S., & Sharma, A., International Spectator, Dec 2024. doi:10.1080/03932729.2024.2435176
- 2024. Review of Capitalism in contemporary Iran. Capital accumulation, state formation and geopolitics by Kayhan Valadbaygi. (Manchester, Manchester University Press, 2024), 256 pp., £80.00 (hardback), ISBN: 978-1-5261-6178-9.. British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, 1-2. doi:10.1080/13530194.2024.2386805.
- 2022. “Bottom-up Politics of Labour Migration: Perspectives for a More Inclusive Governance in the South-to-West Asian Corridor,” in Crystal A. Ennis and Nicolas Blarel eds. The South Asia to Gulf Migration Governance Complex (Bristol University Press, 2022).
- 2021 online. “Trajectories of Resistance and Shifting Forms of Workers’ Activism in Iran,” International Labor and Working-Class History ILWCH, Cambridge Core. December 2021 https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-labor-and-working-class-history/article/abs/trajectories-of-resistance-and-shifting-forms-of-workers-activism-in-iran/16CB02089FEA8F4BF050D6795F0D0C39
- 2021. “Fieldwork, Hyper-Productivity and Psychological Pressure: Coping Strategies among Doctoral Researchers,” SESAMO Dossier, Oriente Moderno - Brill, April 2021, https://brill.com/view/journals/ormo/100/3/article-p500_8.xml
- 2021. “Coming of Age in Iran: Poverty and the Struggle for Dignity, by Manata Hashemi” - Book Review. Iranian Studies, Jan 2021. https://doi.org/10.1080/00210862.2020.1851962
- 2020. “Produce and Consume in the Islamic Republic: The 1990s Myth of the Winner in the Iranian Public Sphere and Its Impact on Workers,” International Journal of Middle East Studies IJMES, 52(2), 340-344. DOI:10.1017/S0020743820000318
- 2019. "Talking to Workers: From Khomeini to Ahmadinejad, how the Islamic Republic’s Discourse on Labour Changed through May Day Speeches (1979‒2009)," Iranian Studies, 52:1-2 (2019),133-158, https://doi.org/10.1080/00210862.2019.1599713
- 2018. “The Islamic Republican Party of Iran in the Factory. Control over workers’ discourse in posters (1979-1987).” IRAN, Journal of the British Institute for Persian Studies. 56:2, 237-249, DOI: 10.1080/05786967.2018.1423768
“Holding a pink flower with its clenched fist, it reaches the orange sun behind it. The caption directly “talks” to the workers, kargar in Persian: “Worker: May your arm gain strength in the service of God and the people.”
(Poster issued by the IRP, 1980s. The University of Chicago Library)
Academic/professional
- 2023. “Decolonising knowledge production and (field) research: a personal experience on Iran,” Researcher hub. University of Liverpool
- 2021. “L’Iran tra apatia elettorale e riformismo moribondo,” La Rivista Il Mulino
- 2020. “Precarious Workers and Neoliberal Narratives in Post-Revolutionary Iran,” MEI, Middle East Institute- MAP Project
- 2019. “Iranian Society Forty Years After the Revolution: a New Framework”, ISPI, Istituto per gli Studi di Politica Internazionale
- 2018. “Why US politics of empathy with the "Iranian people" is fake and dangerous,” ISPI, Institute for International Politics Studies
- 2018. “Nessuna nuova rivoluzione dalle proteste del bazaar”, La rivista Il Mulino
- 2017. “L’Iran dopo il voto” (Iran After the Elections). La rivista “Il Mulino”- online
- 2017, May. “What do Iranians want? Better salaries, jobs and safer working conditions.” The Conversation (global edition) - Huffington Post US.
- 2017, May. “Iran’s Startups Promise Paradise For The Country’s Unemployed Youth.” The Conversation (global edition) – Huffington Post US.