Ali Ansari is the leading authority on Iran and the Persianate world in the United Kingdom. He is Professor of Iranian History & Founding Director of the Institute for Iranian Studies at the University of St Andrews and a Senior Associate Fellow, Royal United Services Institute.
He is regular commentator in the media, writing for the Telegraph, the Times, the Spectator and Engelsberg Ideas, and appearing on PM, Today, The Briefing Room and The Moral Maze for the BBC as well as Channel Four News. Internationally he has appeared in the US on NPR and Fox News, ABC in Australia, as well as European and Middle Eastern networks. He also in 2023 ventured onto Xmas University Challenge. He speaks regularly at literary festivals and is a regular contributor to both the Chalke Valley History Festival and the Chelsea History Festival, as well as to podcasts including The Rest Is History and Empire.
In 2016 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. In 2023 he was re-elected President of British Institute of Persian Studies. In 2020 he was awarded a two-year Knowledge Exchange Fellowship at the FCDO. In 2022 he joined the Council of the National Army Museum.
Agent: Doug Young