Cameron Cross

Cameron Cross is an Assistant Professor of Iranian Studies at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where he teaches classes on Persian literature, Iranian studies, and the culture and history of the Middle East more broadly.  His research interests center in the literary traditions of the “Nile to Oxus” region from about 800–1200 CE (200–700 AH), though he also works with classical and late antique texts on one hand and early modern and modern texts on the other.  Persian and Arabic are his two main research languages, alongside some French, Italian, Spanish, Latin, German, Greek, Middle Persian, and Georgian, which help him situate Islamicate literary production in a broader comparative context.  His recent book, Love at a Crux, explores the emergence of ‘romance’ as a literary genre in New Persian and the idea of ‘romantic love’ as an ethical praxis within this generic tradition, tracing how the interplay of these two branches raises deep existential challenges for the individual subject through the problematization of classic topoi like female chastity, male sovereignty, and sacrifice and redemption in the name of love.

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