# Afsaneh Najmabadi Francis Lee Higginson Professor of History and of Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Emerita ![afsaneh_najmabadi.jpg](/sites/g/files/omnuum9116/files/styles/hwp_4_5__320x400/public/cmes/files/afsaneh_najmabadi.jpg?itok=TI-lYAc9) location\_on Boylston Hall, Room G-33 smartphone [617-496-7460](tel:617-496-7460) email laptop\_windows [History Department](http://history.fas.harvard.edu/people/afsaneh-najmabadi) Afsaneh Najmabadi is the Francis Lee Higginson Professor of History and of Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality *Emerita* at Harvard University. Her book, [*Women with Mustaches and Men without Beards: Gender and Sexual Anxieties of Iranian Modernity* ](http://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520242630)(Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005), received the 2005 Joan Kelly Memorial Prize from the American Historical Association. With Kathryn Babayan, she co-edited [*Islamicate Sexualities: Translations across Temporal Geographies of Desire*](http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674032040) (Harvard University Press, Middle Eastern Monographs, 2008). Her latest book, [*Professing Selves: Transsexuality and Same-Sex Desire in Contemporary Iran*](https://www.dukeupress.edu/Professing-Selves/) (Duke University Press, 2013) was a finalist for Lambda Literary Award in 2014 and received the 2014 Joan Kelly prize from the American Historical Association for best book in women’s history and feminist theory, and was a co-winner of 2015 John Boswell prize, LBGT History, American Historical Association. A book conversation on New Books in Islamic Studies features this book: Najmabadi leads a digital archive and website, [Women’s Worlds in Qajar Iran](http://www.qajarwomen.org/). The project has received five two-year grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, and it was recognized by the [White House Office of Public Engagement](http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2012/05/30/exploring-communities-muslim-women-throughout-history) in May of 2012. - ## People [Research and Emeritus Faculty](/people/emeritus-faculty) - ## Research by Field [History](/research-field/history) - ## Research by Region [Iran](/research-region/iran)