MEMS Director 2026-2028
Classical Persian literature, especially the epic, lyric, panegyric, romantic, and didactic verse of the tenth to fifteenth centuries.
kchalipa@umich.edu
Office Information:
Near Eastern Studies
3155 South Thayer Building
phone: 734.647.4660
About
A native of Evergreen, Colorado, Cameron Cross has been an avid student of Iranian history, culture, and literature since his early teens. He received his B.A. in History and Italian at the University of Colorado in Boulder and his M.A. and Ph.D. in Persian and Arabic literature from the University of Chicago. Because of this breadth, he likes to adopt a comparative approach in his work and frequently looks for connections both historical and thematic between Persian and its neighboring literary traditions. His primary area of research is in classical/medieval narrative literature, particularly the Shahnameh and other epics in the same fictional world; the early romances, especially Vis & Ramin; and prose story cycles such as Samak-e ‘Ayyar and the 1001 Nights. His other interests include contemporary and modernist poetry and prose, translation studies, music, and cinema.
