Behzad Yaghmaian

Professor of Political Economy at Ramapo College

Behzad Yaghmaian is an Iranian-born author living in the United States. He is a professor of political economy at Ramapo College in New Jersey. He has taught in the United States, Iran, and Turkey.

In 2007, he traveled to China to live among the growing population of internal migrants working in the country’s sprawling factories. His most recent book, The Accidental Capitalist: A People’s Story of the New China (Pluto Press, 2012), is a narrative of China’s economic and social transformation told through personal biographies of migrants.

Mr. Yaghmaian is also the author of Embracing the Infidel: Stories of Muslim Migrants on the Journey West (Delacorte Press, 2005), Social Change in Iran: An Eyewitness Account of Dissent, Defiance, and Movements for Rights (SUNY Press, 2002), as well as a number of articles and opinion pieces about globalization and development studies.

He has appeared on CNN, CNN International, Democracy Now!, NPR’s Morning Edition, WNYC’s The Brian Lehrer Show, many NPR and local radio stations around the United States, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and various radio programs in England and Italy.