Carr-Ryan Center Fellow (2026-27)
Dr. Bahman Khodadadi is a scholar of law and the social sciences whose research focuses on Islamic jurisprudence, political theology, human rights, criminal law, reform discourse, and penal policy in the Middle East. He has held research fellowships at the Harvard Radcliffe Institute, the Program in Islamic Law at Harvard Law School, Yale Law School’s Abdallah S. Kamel Center for the Study of Islamic Law and Civilization, and the Cluster of Excellence “Religion and Politics” at the University of Münster.
Bahman earned his Ph.D. from the University of Münster, graduating summa cum laude. His first monograph, On Theocratic Criminal Law: The Rule of Religion and Punishment in Iran (Oxford University Press, 2024), has received strong endorsements from leading scholars in Islamic law, legal theory, and Middle Eastern studies. His second book, Islamic Law in the Crucible of Modern Muslim Societies: Problems and Perspectives, is forthcoming.
His scholarship has appeared in prominent academic journals, including Journal of Law and Religion, Iranian Studies, Political Studies Forum, Yale Journal of Law & the Humanities, Harvard Journal of Islamic Law, Journal of Criminal Law Research, Zeitschrift für die gesamte Strafrechtswissenschaft (ZStW), and Eurolimes. His forthcoming publications include contributions to Critical Research on Religion, The Oxford Handbook of Modern Iranian Religions, and The Cambridge Handbook of Islamic Law.
In addition to his research, he is an active academic editor and peer reviewer. He has reviewed manuscripts for numerous scholarly journals and academic presses, including Journal of Law and Religion, The Journal of Politics (University of Chicago Press), Bloomsbury Academic, British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, Millah: Journal of Religion and Society, and Cogent Social Sciences (Taylor & Francis).
Bahman is also an accomplished translator who has translated fifteen influential works in law, criminology, sociology, and social theory into Persian. His translations include major works by Émile Durkheim, George P. Fletcher, and Lawrence W. Sherman, among others, helping to broaden access to global scholarship and foster intellectual exchange within Persian-speaking academic communities.
Among his distinctions are the Harry Westermann Award for the best doctoral dissertation at the University of Münster, two prestigious DAAD awards (2016 and 2023), and the Middle East Studies Association Global Academy Scholar Award.
Fellowship Project: Khodadadi's fellowship project examines the relationship between religious legal traditions, legal change, and human rights in contemporary Muslim societies. It explores how systems of religious law adapt to social transformation and evolving conceptions of justice while maintaining their doctrinal foundations and authority. Drawing on legal theory, intellectual history, and socio-legal analysis, the project investigates the interpretive methods through which legal scholars and religious authorities negotiate tensions between tradition and reform, continuity and change. Particular attention is given to the factors that facilitate or hinder legal innovation and to the role of jurisprudential debates in shaping responses to contemporary challenges. The project contributes to broader discussions on legal pluralism, constitutionalism, human rights, and the evolution of normative systems.