He received his B.A. in Persian from the University of Virginia in 2006 and his Ph.D. in Persian studies from UT Austin in 2011. Between 2011 and 2013, he taught at the University of Pennsylvania. His research interests include Iranian cinema, film and technology, contemporary Persian literature, and Persian language pedagogy. He co-authored the introductory Persian textbook Persian of Iran Today (2013) and recently co-edited a volume of essays on Iranian cinema entitled Iranian Cinema in a Global Context: Politics, Policy, and Form (2014). He has published articles on Iranian cinema and Persian literature in both English and Persian, in journals such as World Literature Today and Iran Nameh.