Mehrdad Kia is a bridge to the far side of the world. The 47-year-old history professor helps UM students learn about a region he is intimately familiar with: the Middle East and Central Asia.

A big-city guy from the Iranian capital of Tehran, Kia followed a family tradition when he went abroad for his college education. By age 17 he was living with an uncle in Chicago and then wound up attending the University of Wisconsin-Madison, earning a doctoral degree in Middle Eastern and North African history. Thereafter, he taught at his alma mater and Cornell College before coming to UM in 1989.

That was a tense time for Kia. After the 1979 Iranian Revolution, his parents — both university professors — were harassed by the new Islamic government authorities. His father, a well-known linguist and writer — the author of more than 40 books — was detained and imprisoned for a time because his ideas were considered threatening.
After the revolution Kia didn't see his parents for 13 years. "It was a period of very deep anxiety for me," he says. "The Iran-Iraq War was raging on with nightly bombings, and communication was limited because the phone lines went down. And my parents were in danger for being who they were."

In 1991 Kia finally was able to bring his family to Missoula, where they promptly fell in love with the area and settled. His father passed away last year, but his mother and brother, Ardeshir Kia, a UM art assistant professor, and 5-year-old nephew Cameron give Mehrdad a loving family group in the area.

A consistently popular professor, Kia has won several UM teaching awards: Distinguished Teacher of the Year in 1997 and Most Inspirational Teacher of the Year in 1999. In 2000 the Council for Advancement and Support of Education named Kia one of its national professors of the year.

"I feel when teachers have love for their subjects, that love is transmitted to their students," Kia says. "When I teach about the Middle East, students don't want my opinion. They want an in-depth historical analysis so they can formulate their own opinions in a more objective fashion. In the beginning this area of the world seems like a scary, alien reality, and by the end of class it might still be scary, but it's much more familiar and it makes much more sense in terms of why it behaves the way it does."

Most Montana university students come from similar backgrounds, and Kia says it's essential they use their college experience to learn about people and cultures different from their own.

"I think the United States has been so successful because it embraces people of diverse ethnic backgrounds. This is true even with my family. They have maintained something Iranian about themselves but at the same time have become full-fledged Americans who contribute to the growth, expansion and knowledge of this society. I see this as the essence of the American experience."

Though he still teaches Islamic Civilization, Kia in January 2003 took on a new role at UM — director of the Office of International Programs and assistant vice president for research. He also helped form UM's Central Asia and Caspian Basin Program, which facilitates understanding of that little-known corner of the world.

"As educators we need to give students a sense of how amazing and how flavored this world is," he says. "They have to know their experience is only one among many. They have to understand how others see the same reality."

Jess Roskelley | Teresa Branch | Mehrdad Kia | Sousan Rahimi | Jerry Lamb