Gholam Khiabany's academic career has focused on the relationship between citizenship, political activism and media and cultural practices, including alternative media. His research interests centre on the media and social change and the relationship between communication, development and democracy with particular reference to the Middle East. Gholam Khiabany is also interested in the debate over multiculturalism, culturalisation of terror, the rise of the security state, and anti-Muslim racism. He is the author of Iranian Media: The Paradox of Modernity (Routledge, 2010), co-author of Blogistan with Annabelle Sreberny (I.B.Tauris, 2010), co-editor of Liberalism in Neoliberal Times: Dimensions, Contradictions, Limits (Goldsmiths, 2017), and After Charlie Hebdo: Terror, Racism and Free Speech (Zed, 2017) He is an editor of the Middle East Journal of Culture and Communication, and is a member of council of management of the Institute of Race Relations.
Areas of supervision: Mediated culture in the Middle East; media representation of race, migration and refugees; political activism and alternative/new media; media and religion; political economy of media.
Publications and research outputs
Book Davis, Aeron ; Fenton, Natalie ; Freedman, Des (D. J.) and Khiabany, Gholam . 2020. Media, Democracy and Social Change: Re-imagining Political Communications . London: SAGE Publications. ISBN 9781526456960
Sreberny, Annabelle and Khiabany, Gholam . 2010. Blogistan: The Internet and Politics in Iran . London: I.B.Tauris. ISBN 9781845116064
Khiabany, Gholam . 2009. Iranian Media: The Paradox of Modernity . Abingdon and New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-96289-6
Edited Book Khalil, Joe F.; Khiabany, Gholam ; Guaaybess, Tourya and Yesil, Bilge, eds. 2023. The Handbook of Media and Culture in the Middle East . New York: Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN 9781119637066
Titley, Gavan; Freedman, Des (D. J.) ; Khiabany, Gholam and Mondon, Aurelien, eds. 2017. After Charlie Hebdo: Terror, Racism and Free Speech . London: Zed Books. ISBN 978-1-78360-938-3 pb
Abraham-Hamanoiel, Alejandro; Freedman, Des (D. J.) ; Khiabany, Gholam ; Nash, Kate and Petley, Julian, eds. 2017. Liberalism in Neoliberal Times: Dimensions, Contradictions, Limits . London: Goldsmiths Press. ISBN 978-1-906897-40-6
Book Section Sreberny, Annabelle and Khiabany, Gholam . 2023. Where is Iranian politics? Between state and nation, inside and outside the polity . In: Shahram Akbarzadeh, ed. Handbook of Middle East Politics. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, pp. 126-143. ISBN 9781802205626
Khiabany, Gholam ; Khalil, Joe F.; Guaaybess, Tourya and Yesil, Bilge. 2023. Media and Culture in the Middle East: An Introduction . In: Joe F. Khalil; Gholam Khiabany; Tourya Guaaybess and Bilge Yesil, eds. The Handbook of Media and Culture in the Middle East. New York: Wiley/Blackwell, pp. 1-12. ISBN 9781119637066
Khiabany, Gholam . 2023. Intellectuals, Modernities, and the Emerging Public Sphere . In: Joe F. Khalil; Gholam Khiabany; Tourya Guaaybess and Bilge Yesil, eds. The Handbook of Media and Culture in the Middle East. New York: Wiley-Blackwell, pp. 55-63. ISBN 9781119637066
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Khiabany, Gholam . 2022. The Future and the ‘Poetry of the Past’ . In: Joanna Zylinska, ed. The Future of Media. London: Goldsmiths Press, pp. 7-22. ISBN 9781913380144
Freedman, Des (D. J.) . 2017. Media Power and the Framing of the Charlie Hebdo Attacks . In: Gavan Titley; Des (D. J.) Freedman; Gholam Khiabany and Aurelien Mondon, eds. After Charlie Hebdo: Terror, Racism and Free Speech. London: Zed, pp. 209-222. ISBN 978-1783609390
Khiabany, Gholam . 2017. The Visible Hand of the State . In: Gavan Titley; Des (D. J.) Freedman; Gholam Khiabany and Aurelien Mondon, eds. After Charlie Hebdo: Terror, Racism and Free Speech. London: Zed Books, pp. 114-128. ISBN 978-1-78360-938-3 pb
Khiabany, Gholam . 2016. The Middle East . In: Benjamin Birkinbine; Gomez Rodrigi and Janet Wasko, eds. Global Media Giants. New York: Routledge. ISBN 9781138927711
Khiabany, Gholam . 2015. The Importance of ‘Social’ in Social Media: The Lessons from Iran . In: Axel Bruns; Gunn Enli; Eli Skogerbø; Anders Olof Larsson and Christian Christensen, eds. The Routledge Companion to Social Media and Politics. New York: Routledge, pp. 223-234. ISBN 9781138860766
Khiabany, Gholam . 2014. Uneven and Combined Independence of Social Media in the Middle East: Technology, Symbolic Production and Unproductive Labor . In: James Bennett and Niki Strange, eds. Media Independence Working with Freedom or Working for Free? New York: Routledge, pp. 261-280. ISBN 9781138023482
Khiabany, Gholam and Wiillamson, Milly. 2012. Terror, Culture and Anti-Muslim Racism . In: Daya Kishan Thussu and Des (D. J.) Freedman, eds. Media and Terrorism: Global Perspectives. London: SAGE, pp. 134-150. ISBN 978-1446201589
Khiabany, Gholam and Williamson, Milly . 2012. Terror, culture and anti-Muslim racism . In: Des (D. J.) Freedman and Daya Kishan Thussu, eds. Media and Terrorism: Global Perspectives. London: Sage, pp. 134-150. ISBN 9781446201589
Williamson, Milly and Khiabany, Gholam . 2011. Muslim women and veiled threats: From 'civilizing mission' to 'clash of civilisations' . In: J. Petley and R Richardson, eds. Pointing the finger: Islam and Muslims in the British media. London: One World Publications. ISBN 9781851688128
Khiabany, Gholam . 2011. Muslim Women and Veiled Threats: From ‘Civilizing Mission’ to ‘Clash of Civilization . In: Julian Petley and Robin Richardson, eds. Pointing the Finger: Islam and Muslims in the British Media. London: Oneworld Publications. ISBN 978-1851688128
Khiabany, Gholam . 2011. Modernity and the Many Faces of ‘Digital Divides’: Digital Dynamics in Iran . In: Peter Golding and Graham Murdock, eds. Digital Dynamics: Engagements and Connections. New York: Hampton Press. ISBN 978-1572739314
Khiabany, Gholam . 2010. Whither Eurocentrism? Media, Culture and Nativism in our Time . In: Georgette Wang, ed. De-Westernizing Communication Research: Altering Questions and Changing Frameworks. 25 London and New York: Routledge, pp. 207-221. ISBN 978-0-415-57545-4
Khiabany, Gholam . 2007. The Politics of Broadcasting in Iran: Continuity and Change, Expansion and Control . In: David Ward, ed. Television and Public Policy: Change and Continuity in an Era of Global Liberalization. London: Routledge, pp. 283-304. ISBN 978-0805856453
Khiabany, Gholam . 2007. The Iranian Press, State and Civil Society . In: Mehdi Semati, ed. Media, Culture and Society in Iran: Living with Globalization and the Islamic State. London & NY: Routledge, pp. 17-36. ISBN 978-0415772167
Article Williamson, Milly and Khiabany, Gholam . 2024. The British State, Citizenship Rights and Gendered Folk Devils: The Case of Shamima Begum . European Journal of Cultural Studies, ISSN 1367-5494
Fenton, Natalie ; Freedman, Des (D. J.) ; Khiabany, Gholam and Williamson, Milly . 2023. Critiquing the Vocabularies of the Marketized University . Media Theory, 7(1), pp. 277-298. ISSN 2557-826X
Khiabany, Gholam . 2016. Refugee crisis, imperialism and pitiless wars on the poor . Media, Culture & Society, 38(5), pp. 755-762. ISSN 0163-4437
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Khiabany, Gholam and Williamson, Milly . 2015. Free speech and the market state: Race, media and democracy in new liberal times . European Journal of Communication, 30(5), pp. 571-586. ISSN 0267-3231
Khiabany, Gholam . 2015. Technologies of Liberation and/or Otherwise . International Journal of Middle East Studies, 47(2), 348 -353. ISSN 0020-7438
Khiabany, Gholam and Sreberny, Annabelle. 2014. Beyond metropolitanism and nativism: Re-grounding media theory . Asian Journal of Social Science, 41(5), pp. 471-491. ISSN 1568-4849
Williamson, Milly and Khiabany, Gholam . 2011. State, culture and anti-Muslim racism . Global Media and Communication, 7(3), pp. 170-179. ISSN 1742-7665
Williamson, Milly and Khiabany, Gholam . 2010. The veil and the politics of racism . Race & Class, 52(2), pp. 85-96. ISSN 0306-3968
Khiabany, Gholam and Williamson, Milly . 2008. Veiled bodies - naked racism: Culture, politics and race in the Sun . Race and Class: a journal of racism, empire and globalisation, 50(2), pp. 69-88. ISSN 0306-3968
Khiabany, Gholam . 2007. Is There an Islamic Communication? The Persistence of Tradition and the Lure of Modernity . Critical Arts: A Journal of South-North Cultural Studies, 21(1), pp. 106-124. ISSN 0256-0046
Khiabany, Gholam . 2006. Religion and Media in Iran: The Imperative of the Market and the Straightjacket of Islamism . Westminster Papers in Communication and Culture, 3(2),
Khiabany, Gholam . 2003. Globalization and the Internet: Myths and Realities . Trends in Communication, 11(2),
Khiabany, Gholam . 2000. Red Pepper: a New Model for Alternative Press? Media, Culture and Society, 22(4), pp. 447-463. ISSN 0163-4437
Conference or Workshop Item Williamson, Milly and Khiabany, Gholam . 2022. 'Critique and Contesting the Vocabularies of the Marketised University '. In: IAMCR Conference. Paris, France.
Williamson, Milly and Khiabany, Gholam . 2019. 'State Policy and the Articulation of Racism '. In: IAMCR 2019. Madrid, Spain 7 - 11 July 2019.
Williamson, Milly and Khiabany, Gholam . 2014. 'Freedom of Speech: Ours and Theirs '. In: ECREA Diaspora Symposium. Brighton, United Kingdom.
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Williamson, Milly and Khiabany, Gholam . 2013. 'Free Speech and the Market State: Race, Media and Culture '. In: IAMCR 2013. Dublin, Ireland 25 - 29 June 2013.
Khiabany, Gholam and Williamson, Milly . 2011. 'Security Culture and Racism '. In: IAMCR 2011. Istanbul, Turkey 13 - 17 July 2011.
Khiabany, Gholam and Williamson, Milly . 2007. 'Veiled Bodies, Naked Racism: Culture, Politics and Race in the British Media '. In: IAMCR 2007. Paris, UNESCO, France 23 - 25 July 2007.