Elham Hoominfar is an assistant professor in the Global Health Studies Program at Northwestern University. Hoominfar is a sociologist whose research expertise focuses on intersections of environment and society and understanding of social inequalities and social movements with an interdisciplinary approach. She received her first master’s degree in the sociology of development at the University of Tehran, where she also got her bachelor’s degree in sociology. Before she left Iran, she maintained an active research agenda and she was involved in various research and teaching projects in different institutes. She received her second master’s in Cross-Cultural and International Education program at Bowling Green State University, Ohio, and her PhD in sociology from Utah State University. Her PhD project focused on marketization of water and environmental movements in Iran and the US.
Hoominfar has extensive teaching experience in the United States and Iran. She employs a student-centered learning method and a critical view for teaching. She is currently researching environmental justice, water governance, commodification of nature and social resistances with an emphasis on political economy in the Global South and North. She has focused on marginalized groups, and examined issues such as development, natural disasters and social inequality in an array of research publications in both Persian and English.
Global Health Courses Taught
- Environmental Justice
- Hazards, Disasters, and Society
Recent Publications
Hoominfar, E & Zangeneh, N. 2021. “The Brick Wall to Break: Women and the Labor Market under the Hegemony of the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI)”. International Feminist Journal of Politics, (23) 2, 263-286, DOI:10.1080/14616742.2021.1898286
Hoominfar, E & Radel, C. 2020. “Contested Dam Development in Iran: A Case Study of the Exercise of State Power over Local People”. Sustainability, 12, (13) 5476. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12135476
Hoominfar, E. 2020. “Social Movements in Iran: How well does the dominant narrative work?” Critical Sociology, 1-17. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0896920520976792
Hoominfar, E. 2019. Socialization of Women. In: Leal Filho W., Azeiteiro U., Azul, A.M., Brandli, L., Özuyar, P., Wall, T. (eds) Gender Equality. Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Springer, Cham
Alaedini, p & Javaheripour, M. and Hoominfar, E. 2013. “Enhancing Community Resilience to Floods in Iran: The Case of Post-Disaster Neka”. International Journal of Social Sciences, (1) 4, 267-272.
Hoominfar, E and Moidfar, S. 2012. Strategies to Increase Rural Participation in Village Affairs. Ghom, Iran; Motahari. (2nd Edition)
Hoominfar, E, Ahmadzadeh, S and Alaedini, P. 2011. “A Social Assessment of Bam in the Aftermath of the 2003 Earthquake,” in Pooya Alaedini, ed., Post-Earthquake Reconstruction and Vulnerability Reduction in Iran: Social and Management Aspects, Tehran: Natural Disasters Research Institute & Jameeshenasan.