Anthony Shay is professor of dance and cultural studies at Pomona College, USA, and has served as author, editor and co-editor of 14 books and edited volumes, and over seventy articles for a wide variety of scholarly journals. His most recent book is Folk Dance and the Construction of National Identities (Palgrave Macmillan 2023), and he served as Editor and contributor to Dance in the Persianate World (2023). In 2024, he was made honorary fellow of the Iranian Studies Association.