Ana-Diamond Aaba Atach awarded Alistair Horne Visting Fellowship

Ana-Diamond Aaba Atach has been named the 2024–2025 recipient of the Alistair Horne Visiting Fellowship. The fellowship supports young historians in writing a significant non-fiction work for a general audience. Ana-Diamon, who previously studied Modern Middle Eastern Studies at Balliol College, is the 10th woman to receive this honour since the Fellowship’s inception in 1969.

During her time as the Alistair Horne Visiting Fellow, Ana-Diamond will focus on completing her book, which delves into the contested history of women in Iran. Her work, she says, will ‘illuminate the hidden lives of ordinary Iranian women through an intimate lens, capturing their strength as they flourish and endure amidst the turbulence of history.’ She adds, ‘Though some of their histories may have been erased, rendered invisible, or dismissed as irrelevant, they are not lost. I am piecing them back together, so their contributions may finally be recorded and honoured in the annals of history.’

The project is deeply personal, drawing on intimate accounts from her own family to tell the history of Iran from a feminist perspective. She aims to present a narrative rarely explored in such a subversive and unorthodox way, contributing to ongoing discussions on women’s role and agency in Iranian society and beyond.

‘I am very grateful for this opportunity and excited by the prospect of seeing this work come to fruition, with the space, time, and attention it requires. This project has been evolving within me for years, long before I began writing, and this fellowship grants me the invaluable chance to fully devote myself to bringing these untold stories to light in a way that acknowledges and affirms their profound significance.’

Since graduating from Oxford, Ana-Diamond has been recognised with a Spread the Word Emerging Writer’s award for her research on her book’s subject. She is also a member of the London Library Emerging Writers’ cohort for 2023–2024. Additionally, she has received support from the Arvon Foundation, Stanford University Creative Writing Workshop, Berlin Writer’s Workshop, and Tin House.

Where next?