Scholars from different fields will discuss the central themes of Türkiye, Iran, and the Politics of Comparison: America's Wife, America's Concubine, a new book by Perin Gürel, associate professor in the Department of American Studies at the University of Notre Dame and a faculty fellow of the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies and the Liu Institute for Asia and Asian Studies, part of the Keough School of Global Affairs. With a focus on how U.S. foreign policy shaped comparative approaches to Türkiye and Iran, the panel will explore the transnational formation of national identities, gender politics, racial ideas, and religious discourse, from the Cold War to the War on Terror. Gürel will moderate a panel made up of the following discussants:
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Asher Kaufman, John M. Regan, Jr., Director of the Kroc Institute and professor of history and peace studies
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Alyssa Paylor, postdoctoral student and Ph.D. graduate (‘25) in peace studies and anthropology
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Mahan Mirza, executive director, Ansari Institute for Global Engagement with Religion
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Nell Haynes, assistant professor, global studies and intercultural studies, Saint Mary’s College
This panel is sponsored by the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies with cosponsorship by Notre Dame’s Gender Studies Program and the Department of American Studies, in addition to the Ansari Institute for Global Engagement with Religion, the Southwest Asia and North Africa (SWANA) Working Group at the Liu Institute for Asia and Asian Studies, and the Nanovic Institute for European Studies, all part of the Keough School of Global Affairs.
About the Book
In a 1962 meeting at the White House, Iran's last monarch, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, complained to US President John F. Kennedy 'America treats Turkey as a wife, and Iran as a concubine.' Taking this protest as a critical starting point, this book examines the transnational history of comparisons between Türkiye and Iran from Cold War-era modernization theory to post-9/11 studies of 'moderate Islam'. Perin E. Gürel explores how US policymakers and thought leaders strategically used comparisons to advance shifting agendas, while stakeholders in Türkiye and Iran responded by anticipating, manipulating, and reshaping US-driven narratives. Juxtaposing dominant US-based comparisons with representations originating from Iran and Türkiye, Gürel's interdisciplinary and multilingual research uncovers unexpected twists: comparisons didn't always reinforce US authority but often reflected and encouraged the rise of new ideologies. This book offers fresh insight into the complexities of US-Middle Eastern relations and the enduring impact of comparativism on international relations.
About the Author
Perin E. Gürel is associate professor of American Studies and concurrent associate professor of Gender Studies at the University of Notre Dame. Gürel earned her Ph.D. in American Studies and a graduate qualification in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies from Yale University in 2011. Her research and teaching explore the United States in the world and the world in the United States through transnational feminist lenses, with a special focus on U.S.-Middle East relations after World War I.
Professor Gürel has held fellowships and grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Research Institute in Turkey, the Institute of Turkish Studies, the Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York, and elsewhere. She is a member of the Advisory Network for the Yale Initiative for the Study of Material and Visual Cultures of Religion. She is also a Faculty Fellow for the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, the Ansari Institute for Global Engagement with Religion, the Liu Institute for Asia and Asian Studies, and the Nanovic Institute for European Studies at Notre Dame.