Maia Golzar Anderson is an MA student in the Department of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies at Columbia University. She graduated in 2023 from the Dual Degree Program of Barnard College of Columbia University and List College of the Jewish Theological Seminary with degrees in International Politics, Human Rights, and Jewish Ethics. Her research focuses on climate sovereignty, geopolitical and diasporic identity, and post-Zionist SWANA Jewish identity.

Her undergraduate thesis, Natural Resource Sovereignty in the Persian Gulf: The Power of Oil to Circumvent Violent United States Hegemony, examines resource-related foreign intervention historically in the “Global South” and subsequent protection mechanisms for states seeking resource sovereignty, including OPEC.

Maia Golzar Anderson previously served as a Research Assistant at the Middle East Institute’s Climate and Water Program, and is continuing research on human impact on Persian Gulf ecosystems. She has published writing on Iranian climate diplomacy, decolonial agricultural practice in Palestine, diasporic Iranian identity, and Mizrahi politics.