Omid Tofighian

Omid Tofighian, an award-winning lecturer, researcher, and community advocate, combines philosophy with interests in citizen media, popular culture, displacement, and discrimination. He completed his PhD in philosophy at Leiden University, Netherlands, and graduated with a combined honours degree in philosophy and studies in religion at the University of Sydney. Tofighian has lived variously in Australia, where he taught at different universities; the United Arab Emirates, where he taught at Abu Dhabi University; Belgium, where he was a visiting scholar at K.U. Leuven; Netherlands for his PhD; and intermittent periods in Iran for research. His current roles include Assistant Professor of English and Comparative Literature, American University in Cairo; Adjunct Lecturer in the School of the Arts and Media, UNSW; Honorary Research Associate for the Department of Philosophy, University of Sydney; faculty at Iran Academia; and campaign manager for Why Is My Curriculum White? – Australasia. He contributes to community arts and cultural projects and works with refugees, migrants and youth. He has published numerous book chapters and journal articles, is the author of Myth and Philosophy in Platonic Dialogues (Palgrave, 2016), translator of Behhouz Boochani’s multi-award-winning book No Friend but the Mountains: Writing From Manus Prison (Picador, 2018), and co-editor of ‘Refugee Filmmaking’, Alphaville: Journal of Film and Screen Media (Winter 2019).

'Behrouz Boochani and the politics of naming' by Omid Tofighian

August 2019, no. 413 • 26 July 2019

In June 2019, Australian Book Review announced the ABR Behrouz Boochani Fellowship, an initiative generously funded by Peter McMullin in association with the Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness (University of Melbourne). This initiative was not only created to highlight issues pertaining to displacement and exile, but also as an important act of naming in the face of a border regime designed to ... (read more)