Iranian and Persian Gulf Studies

I am a remote sensing scientist, with the central theme of my research being how remote sensing, particularly hyperspectral remote sensing or imaging spectroscopy, can enhance our understanding of grassland ecosystems and their biodiversity. To achieve this goal, I bring together concepts from remote sensing, plant ecophysiology, and landscape ecology to conduct my research as a lead and collaborator on sizable transdisciplinary projects.

I am graphic designer, educator, and design activist whose work centers on visual semiotics as a critical lens for analyzing visual media, symbolism, and meaning-making. Shaped by experiences of migration, and Persian culture, my scholarship and practice interrogate authorship, cultural specificity, and Western-centric frameworks within design education and visual culture.

Alan Randolph Kluver is the Associate Provost and Dean of OSU Global and the School of Global Studies, and a Professor in the School of Media and Strategic Communication at Oklahoma State University. He also holds the Don and Cathey Humphreys Chair in Global Studies and is an elected member of the National Academy of International Education (NAIE). Prior to his leadership at OSU, he held several tenured faculty and administrative positions at Texas A&M University.

 

As the senior international officer for the University, Dr. Kluver develops, implements, and coordinates OSU's global strategy and institutional impact. His administrative portfolio includes oversight of the Center for Global Learning, the international branch footprint including the OSU Mexico Office, International Students and Scholars, the Fulbright and Global Scholars Support Office, the School of Global Studies graduate program, the endowed Farzaneh Family Iranian and Persian Gulf Studies program, and the Don and Cathey Humphreys funding endowment. Under his leadership, OSU was awarded the prestigious NAFSA Senator Paul Simon Spotlight Award for its rapid humanitarian and academic response to the Afghan refugee crisis.

 

Dr. Kluver has extensive international experience, having previously taught at Jiangxi Normal University (China), National University of Singapore, and Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He continues to conduct active research at the intersection of media, new media, and geopolitics. He has published widely in the fields of Asian politics, the Internet in Asian societies, public diplomacy, and international communication. He has served as principal investigator or co-principal investigator for approximately $10 million in research and institutional funding.

 

He is the author or editor of five books. His research includes serving as the principal investigator for a comprehensive analysis of global media coverage of the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election, published as Global Media and Strategic Narratives of Contested Democracy (Routledge, 2019). He was also a principal investigator for The Internet and National Elections: a Comparative Study of Web Campaigning (Routledge, 2007) and founded the Singapore Internet Research Centre. His book Civic Discourse, Civil Society, and Chinese Communities won the Outstanding Book Award from the National Communication Association (NCA). Most recently, expanding his focus to regional migration history, he edited and published Chào to Main Street, documenting the 1975 Vietnamese refugee resettlement in Oklahoma.

Dr. Ali Mirchi is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering at Oklahoma State University (OSU). He also serves as Associate Director of the Oklahoma Water Resources Center, a federally authorized institute under the Water Resources Research Act of 1964 dedicated to supporting informed water management through impactful research, education, and outreach that connects science with communities to address pressing water challenges. Dr. Mirchi teaches courses in various areas of water resources engineering and management. His interdisciplinary water resources research program and outreach efforts have guided water policies and management interventions to support sustainable food, feed, and fiber production amid mounting challenges posed by urbanization, irrigation expansion, fragile ecosystems, and hydrologic intensification. He applies systems thinking, systems analysis techniques, geographic information systems (GIS), simulation, and optimization modeling to advance understanding of coupled human–natural systems at different scales. He has received OSU’s Ferguson College of Agriculture’s James A. Whatley Award for Meritorious Research in Agricultural Sciences, the American Water Resources Association’s Icko Iben Multidisciplinary Communications Award, and the Early Career Award for Applied Research from the Universities Council on Water Resources (UCOWR). Prior to joining OSU, Dr. Mirchi was a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering and the Center for Environmental Resource Management at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP).

Research Interests:

Watershed modeling and systems analysis for water resources planning, management, and decision making

Climate impact assessment and adaptation to extreme events (e.g., droughts and floods)

Coupled human-natural systems and sustainable development

Water quality management and policy

Bio:

Dr. Pezeshki is an Associate Professor at Oklahoma State University (OSU). Dr. Pezeshki obtained his Ph.D. in Veterinary Sciences (physiology discipline) from Ghent University Faculty of Veterinary Medicine in 2010. In 2011, he started postdoctoral training in the Gastrointestinal Research Group, Calvin, Phoebe and Joan Snyder Institute for Chronic Diseases and the Department of Production Animal Health at University of Calgary Faculty of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine. In 2016, he joined the faculty as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Animal and Food Sciences at OSU and in July 2022, he was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure. Dr. Pezeshki teaches undergraduate and graduate courses, and his primary research interest is on the role of liver-derived factors or hepatokines in regulation of hepatic glucose metabolism. In particular, his laboratory is interested in unraveling the hepatic pathways that can define the compelling metabolic effects of dietary branched-chain amino acids (BCAA) restriction by focusing on hepatokines. Adel is a member of several professional societies including American Society for Nutrition and serves as an associate editor on the editorial board of Gut Endocrinology and Metabolic Endocrinology for Frontiers in Endocrinology and he is on the reviewer board of Nutrients.

Research Interests:

Liver plays an essential role in regulation of systemic glucose homeostasis. Hepatic insulin signaling is crucial for maintenance of normal glucose homeostasis through suppressing gluconeogenesis and promoting glycogenesis. Therefore, hepatic insulin resistance can contribute to hyperglycemia in type 2 diabetes. We have demonstrated that dietary branched-chain amino acids (BCAA) restriction improves glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity, increases hepatic insulin signaling and suppresses gluconeogenesis in the liver [1, 2]. My laboratory is interested in unraveling the hepatic pathways that can define the compelling metabolic effects of dietary BCAA restriction by focusing on known and novel hepatokines.

 

Several proteins are predominantly and exclusively secreted by liver. These liver-derived proteins or hepatokines have some inconclusive roles in hepatic glucose metabolism and insulin signaling. My lab is focused on: 1) examining whether known or novel hepatokines are required for BCAA restriction-induced improvement in glucose metabolism and insulin signaling in the liver, 2) characterizing the pathways by which BCAA restriction induces these hepatokines, and 3) assessing the role of these hepatokines or new liver-derived factors in regulation of systemic glucose homeostasis when BCAA restricted diets are offered. To this end, our lab employs a variety of techniques such as genome editing in cell culture-based systems and animal models, and transcriptomics. The long-term goal of our program is to identify novel therapeutics for the treatment of diabetes.