Department of Sociology
April 29, 2025

Kevan Harris

Colloquia

When “I Don't Know” Matters: A Sociology of Ethnic Self-Classification in Iran

Bio

(From https://soc.ucla.edu/person/kevan-harris/)

I’m a historical sociologist studying development and social change in the global South.Kevan Harris

My first book, A Social Revolution: Politics and the Welfare State in Iranis published by University of California Press. The Persian translation is published by Shirazeh Press.

I also co-edited The Social Question in the Twenty-First Century: A Global Viewalong with Jan Breman, Ching Kwan Lee, and Marcel van der Linden. It is published by University of California Press on its open access imprint. The entire book is free to download.

My current research projects focus on:

  • Welfare politics in low and middle-income countries
  • State formation in West Asia and North Africa
  • Business-state relations in post-revolutionary Iran
  • Class and social mobility in Iran before and after 1979