Behnaz A. Mirzai is Associate Professor of Middle Eastern history at Brock University. Prior to her current appointment, she taught at Southern Methodist University from 2005 to 2006. She has authored several articles on slavery and the African Diaspora in Iran; edited a special issue of Journal of Middle East and Africa (2013) on the Baluchi and Baluchistan; co-edited Slavery, Islam and Diaspora (Trenton, 2009); and produced two documentary films Afro-Iranian Lives and African-Baluchi Trance Dance. She is currently working on a book manuscript tentatively titled “Slavery and Emancipation in Iran 1800–1929”.