Persis Karim

Persis Maryam Karim (born 1962) is an American poet, essayist, editor, and educator. Her work focuses on Iranians living outside of Iran, specifically Iranian Americans, and their complicated histories and identities which is often presented through storytelling. She served as the Neda Nobari Distinguished Chair and director of the Center for Iranian Diaspora Studies at San Francisco State University (SFSU) from 2017 to 2025.

Biography Persis Maryam Karim was born in 1962 in Walnut Creek, California. She was the youngest child in her family (with six siblings and two half siblings), and was raised in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Karim attended the University of California, Santa Cruz (BA 1985), and University of Texas at Austin (PhD 1998, comparative literature). From 1999 until 2017, Karim worked at San José State University, where she was a co-director of its Persian Studies Program.

Karim and Soumyaa K. Behrnes co-directed the documentary film The Dawn is Too Far: Stories of Iranian-American Life (2024), which follows the Iranian diaspora community in the San Francisco Bay Area from the 1950s until present day.

The Center for Iranian Diaspora Studies is scheduled to close in 2025.

Contributions