Huss Banai

22 02 2024

Huss Banai of Indiana University is an individual Brent considers himself incredibly fortunate to call a friend.  He joins the Hayseed Scholar podcast to tell his amazing story and journey through life and academia. Huss was born in Iran and grew up in Northern Tehran until his family moved to Canada when he was 15. In Iran, Huss and his family experienced the war with Iraq, the fallout from the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan (his father worked with Afghan refugees during that time), and with a dad who worked for a business promoting Japanese Exports, electronics and video games. The transition to living in Canada was a bit bumpy for Huss until he had a key bit of counsel and guidance from a high school teacher. Huss talks about going to York University as an undergrad, working on the set of The Fog of War with Errol Morris and Robert McNamara, his experiences as a Master's student at LSE and working on the editorial team of Millennium, and pursuing a PhD at Brown University. He talks about his experiences on the market, working at Occidental and now Indiana, his approach to writing, his love of gardening, and more! 

Brent Steele

Brent J. Steele is the Francis D. Wormuth Presidential Chair, Department Chair and Professor of Political Science at the University of Utah, and the co-editor in chief of Global Studies Quarterly. He is the author of the recently published Vicarious Identity in International Relations (with Chris Browning and Pertti Joenniemi), and Restraint in International Politics (Cambridge University Press, 2019), which co-won the ISA Theory section book award for 2020.