Anthony A. Lee, Ph.D.

Lee’s historical research has focused on African and African American history, the African Diaspora, and the history of the Bahá’í Faith in Africa and Iran. As an independent scholar, he continues to investigate the history of Africans and the African Diaspora in Iran, with particular attention to recovering the individual life stories of enslaved Africans and their descendants—histories that have often been absent from conventional historical narratives. His recent research has examined Afro-Iranian figures including Ziba Khanum, Fezzeh Khanum, Haji Mubarak, and Ghulam-‘Ali Siyah, exploring questions of slavery, race, identity, religion, and historical memory. His scholarship has appeared in scholarly journals, edited volumes, encyclopedias, and other academic publications, and he has presented his research at conferences and universities in the United States, Europe, and Japan.

Lee’s work in religious studies has focused particularly on the history, development, and intellectual traditions of the Bahá’í Faith, as well as its connections with Christianity, Islam, race, and modernity. He has written on the emergence of the Bahá’í community in Africa and Iran and on the role of figures such as the Báb and Táhirih in Bahá’í history and thought. As General Editor of the Studies in the Bábí and Bahá’í Religions series, he has overseen the publication of a wide-ranging body of scholarship exploring the history, theology, literature, and social development of the Bábí and Bahá’í religions. His own contributions include The Bahá’í Faith in Africa, his study of the Declaration of the Báb, and research examining the Bahá’í Faith as a synthesis of Christian and Islamic traditions.

His most recent work in the field is Beyond Dialogue: New Paradigms in Interfaith Discourse, co-edited with Daniel Ross Goodman and Elaine Jean Lai and published by SUNY Press in 2026. The volume brings together scholars and practitioner-scholars from a range of religious and intellectual traditions to reconsider the possibilities and limitations of interfaith dialogue, with particular attention to questions of religious diversity, social justice, liberation, and the voices of communities often underrepresented in interreligious scholarship.

In 1978, Lee co-founded Kalimát Press, an independent publishing house devoted to Bahá’í and Bahá’í-inspired literature. He has served as the general editor of the long-running Studies in the Bábí and Bahá’í Religions series, which began publication in 1982 and has grown to 30 volumes. His publishing work has encompassed history, religious studies, poetry, and literary translation, bringing the work of scholars and poets to a wider readership.

Alongside his academic and publishing work, Lee has maintained a lifelong engagement with poetry. His literary work includes original poetry as well as translations and collaborations that bring Arabic, Persian, and Urdu poetry into English. His books include This Poem Means, Táhirih: A Portrait in Poetry, and his collaborations on the poetry of Rumi and other poets. His work as a poet and translator reflects his broader interest in history, spirituality, identity, and the ways literature can recover and connect human experience across cultures.

Throughout his career, Lee has remained engaged with questions of racial justice, racial reconciliation, and the historical understanding of race in America and beyond. In Manhattan Beach, he worked extensively on the Bruce’s Beach project, helping bring historical research and public understanding to the effort to address the 1924 seizure of the Bruce family’s property. His scholarship, teaching, writing, and community work reflect a continuing commitment to bringing overlooked histories into public understanding.

Anthony A. Lee taught African, African American, and world history at UCLA, West Los Angeles College, and several community colleges in Southern California. His academic career has centered on African and African American history, the history of the African Diaspora, and the study of race, religion, and cultural identity. He taught at UCLA from 2007 to 2020 and at West Los Angeles College from 1997 to 2020, alongside earlier appointments at El Camino, Cypress, Oxnard, Ventura, Cerritos, and Mt. San Antonio Colleges.

Ph.D., History — University of California, Los Angeles, 2007
C. Phil., African History — University of California, Los Angeles, 1976
M.A., African Studies — University of California, Los Angeles, 1974
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor — Political Science (Middle East), 1969
B.A., Political Science – International Relations — University of California, Los Angeles, 1968