Rate My Professor Cyrus Contractor

Cyrus A. Contractor serves as Instructional Associate Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Department of Political Science at the University of Houston, with the latter role commencing in Fall 2018 and the professorship since 2020. He earned a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Oklahoma, an M.A. in Political Science from the University of Texas at Arlington, and a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Texas at Arlington in 2000. Prior to his current positions, Contractor was a Graduate Teaching Associate in Political Science at the University of Oklahoma from 2004 to 2011. At the University of Houston, he teaches essential undergraduate courses, including POLS 1336 – US and Texas Constitutional Politics and POLS 1337 – US Federal Government Institutions, supporting the department's focus on theories of government and governmental processes.

Contractor's research interests lie in comparative politics, specifically the politics of the Middle East—particularly the Islamic Republic of Iran—and the congruence between state and society. His principal research project originates from his dissertation and examines the political dispositions of Shi‘a Muslims in the United States, emphasizing the effect of religious narratives on their political and social lives. This scholarship also incorporates the significance of diaspora communities and transnational influences between Shi‘as in the West and the Middle East. Among his key publications is the article “The Dearborn Effect: A Comparison of the Political Dispositions of Shi‘a and Sunni Muslims in the United States,” featured in Politics & Religion 4, no. 1 (April 2011). He also contributed the chapter “The Changing Face of the Arab League” to the edited volume The Search for Israel-Arab Peace: Learning from the Past and Building Trust, edited by Edwin G. Corr, Joseph Ginat, and Shaul Gabbay (Sussex Academic Press, 2007). Contractor's expertise enhances Political Science discourse on religion's role in politics, Middle Eastern affairs, and transnational Shi‘a dynamics. Additionally, he holds affiliated faculty status in the Middle Eastern Studies program through the Department of Modern and Classical Languages at the University of Houston.