Fatemeh Shams is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at the University of Pennsylvania. She holds degrees from Tehran University (Iran), Aga-Khan University (UK), and Oxford University (UK). She previously taught at the University of Oxford), School of Oriental and Afrian Studies (SOAS) and Courtauld Institute of Somerset House (London). She has published articles and book chapters on the official literature and cultural institutions under the Islamic Republic, contemporary Persian literature and social history of Persian literature. Her forthcoming book “A Revolution in Rhyme: Official Poets of the Islamic Republic” (Oxford University Press, 2018) is particularly concerned with the relationship between the state and the literati with specific reference to post-revolutionary Iran. Beside her academic expertise, she is also a published poet. So far, Shams has published three poetry collections and won a number of prestigious literary awards.