Maziyar Ghiabi is Associate Professor of Social Sciences and the Director of the Centre for Persian & Iranian Studies at Exeter University. Author of Drugs Politics: Managing Disorder in the Islamic Republic of Iran (winner of the MESA Nikki Keddie Award) and States without People: revolt and defeat in the Middle East (with Billie Jeanne Brownlee), Maziyar’s works include documentary films, such as The Virtual Shepherd, and graphic novels Noire Lebanese and Havana-Tehran. He is the recipient of the Philip Leverhulme Prize in Sociology.