Sahand Keshavarz Rahbar '17 was born in Iran and raised in Idaho, an arrangement that has naturally invested him with a deep appreciation of intercultural understanding and potatoes. As a junior in the Department of History, his research interests pertain to the study of the Eastern Mediterranean and the Near East, especially in the early modern period. More broadly, he is interested in the study of the Greek world, the construction of ethnic identity, mystical religion, interreligious interactions, and the history of women in the region. His scholarship often seeks to challenge established partitions between the so-called Western and Eastern civilizations by highlighting commonalities and shared traditions prevalent in both.