His research focus is the comparative study of Islamic and Western political thought. His work has appeared in Journal of Religion, Perspectives on Political Science, American Political Thought, Iranian Studies, Interpretation, Review of Politics, Renaissance & Reformation, and Eurorient, as well as collected volumes. His teaching interests at Duke Kunshan include Islamic and Western political thought.
His book (forthcoming with Cambridge University Press) is a comprehensive study of Leo Strauss's writings on Islamic political thought. He is currently working on a book-length manuscript on early Islamic political theology. In 2014, he received the Raymond Aron Prize for Research.
Namazi has a B.A. in political sciences from the University of Central Tehran, an M.A. in political studies from Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) in Paris, and a Ph.D. in political philosophy from EHESS. Before joining Duke Kunshan, he was an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow (2019-21) at Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich, and a research fellow (2016-18) in the Committee on Social Thought, University of Chicago.