Mehran Tamadonfar is a professor of Political Science specializing in Comparative and International Law and Politics. He received a bachelor’s degree from College of Law and Political Science at Tehran University, a master’s degree in International Affairs from Center for Advanced International Studies, and a doctoral degree in Political Science from the University of Colorado at Boulder. At UNLV, he has served in a number of capacities including chair of the Faculty Senate and Department of Political Science. During his career at UNLV, he has taught over a dozen courses at both undergraduate and graduate levels in Comparative Politics, International Relations, and Public Law.

Dr. Tamadonfar is the co-author of Kurds and their Struggle for Autonomy: Enduring Identity and Clientelism (Lexington, 2022); author of Islamic Law and Governance in Contemporary Iran: Transcending Islam for Social, Economic, and Political Order (Lexington, 2015); Co-editor of Religion and Regimes: Support, Separation, and Opposition (Lexington, 2013); and author of The Islamic Polity and Political Leadership: Fundamentalism, Sectarianism, Pragmatism (Westview Press, 1989; and Routledge, 2019). His numerous articles and book chapters cover a wide array of topics on the Middle East and North Africa including Islamic law and politics, gender politics, political development, and religion in popular culture. His works are extensively cited in publications in over a dozen languages.