William O. Beeman
William Orman Beeman (born April 1, 1947, in Manhattan, Kansas) is an American anthropologist who specializes in the Middle East. He is Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at the University of Minnesota, where he served as department chair for 13 years before retiring in 2020. Before Minnesota, he spent 34 years at Brown University as a professor of Anthropology, Theatre, Speech and Dance, and East Asian Studies.
Beeman studied linguistics at Wesleyan University and earned his MA (1972) and PhD (1976) in anthropology at the University of Chicago. He conducted fieldwork in Iran from 1976 to 1979 with the Center for Traditional Performing Arts and at Reza Shah Kabir University (now the University of Mazandaran).
His research includes Iranian sociolinguistics; Language, Status, and Power in Iran (1986) is a landmark work on how language use signals social hierarchy, including the practice of ta’ārof. His other notable books include The Great Satan vs. the Mad Mullahs: How the United States and Iran Demonize Each Other (2008), which analyzes hostile rhetoric and its impact on attitudes and policy, and Iranian Performance Traditions, which surveys Iran’s traditional performance arts, including ta’ziyeh and ru-howzi. He has also studied performance traditions in Japan, China, and South Asia.
Beeman has contributed to the field of performance studies and co-authored works on art history and opera performance, including The Third Line: The Opera Performer as Interpreter (with Daniel Helfgot) and Object, Image and Inquiry: The Art Historian at Work. He edited seven volumes of Margaret Mead’s post–World War II papers and wrote introductions for several of them.
In addition to academia, Beeman is a professional opera singer, performing as a bass in Europe from 1996 to 1999. In 2014, he married Frank Farris; they had been together since 1984.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 04:08 (CET).