Kevan Harris Awarded Two Book Awards

The Middle Eastern Studies Association (MESA) recognized A Social Revolution: Politics and the Welfare State in Iran” (UC Press, 2017) by UCLA sociologist and Latin East collaborator Kevan Harris with the 2018 Nikki Keddie Book Award for exceptional scholarship in religion, revolution and/or society, and the 2018 Middle East Political Economy Book Prize for exceptional critical work on the political economy of the Middle East.

In “A Social Revolution,” Harris contests conventional wisdom about the Iranian regime after the revolution at the end of the seventies, exploring how the state managed to maintain the loyalty of the public during turbulent times of internal and foreign wars by fomenting literacy and lowering infant mortality, among other initiatives. The UCLA International Institute offers a longer review of the award-winning monograph.