Lor Afshar, Ehsan
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Ehsan Lor Afshar
Lecturer | Cultural Anthropology
Ehsan is a cultural anthropologist with expertise in the intersections of power, culture, and value, focusing primarily on the Middle East. His research explores the informal economy, border dynamics, and the effects of economic sanctions, particularly in Baluchistan, southeastern Iran. Ehsan's engagement with this region began in 2005 when he joined the University of Sistan and Baluchistan's Anthropology Department as a full-time lecturer.
He holds two master’s degrees in anthropology: one from the University of Tehran (2002) and another from The New School in New York (2014). He completed his Ph.D. in anthropology at Binghamton University, State University of New York, in 2022. In 2017, he was honored with the Wadsworth International Fellowship from the Wenner-Gren Foundation, a four-year award that supported his education as well as dissertation fieldwork, which was also funded by the National Science Foundation.
Ehsan’s current project, Displacement of Value: The Displacement Effects of Economic Sanctions, integrates a value theory of displacement into the emerging field of the Anthropology of Sanctions. This project builds on the existing scholarship in the Anthropology of Value and offers a novel perspective on migration and displacement, conceptualizing these as outcomes of value reconfiguration.
Beyond his research, Ehsan has served on the Board of Directors for the Iranian Society of Anthropology for two years. His work has been published in peer-reviewed journals in both Persian and English, and he has taught anthropology courses in Iran and the United States.
Education
MA (Anthropology), University of Tehran, Iran (2002)
MA (Anthropology), The New School, New York, US (2014)
PhD (Anthropology), Binghamton University, State University of New York (2022)