Dr. Rahnema is professor of political science at York University. He has served as the Director of the School of Public Policy and Administration, and Coordinator of the political science program at Atkinson Faculty, School of Social Sciences, at York Univerity. Before joining York University, he was an Associate Professor in the School of policy studies at Queen’s University. In his homeland Iran, he taught and worked as a member of the executive of the Industrial Management Institute in Tehran.

He has served as a Senior Officer of the UNDP, Director of the Middle East Economic Association (MEEA), Editor of the MEEA Newsletter, and an editorial board member of several journals. He is a frequent commentator on Canadian and international media on the issues of the Middle East and Islam, Human Rights, and Left and Labour Movement, and has published several books and numerous articles in English and Farsi (Persian).

His books include: Diaspora by Design, University of Toronto Press, 2009 (co-author); Selected Communities of Islamic Cultures in Canada: A Statistical Profile, Diaspora, Islam and Gender Project, York University, Toronto, 2005 (co-author); Rebirth of Social Democracy in the Iranian Left Movement, Stockholm: Baran Book Ferlag, 1996; Iran After the Revolution: Crisis of an Islamic State, I.B. Tauris, British Academic Press, London: St.Martin’s Press, New York:1995, 1996 (with S. Behdad); Organization Structure: A Systemic Approach: Cases of the Canadian Public Sector, Toronto: McGraw-Hill/Ryerson,1992.

He has been a leading member of several major international research and educational projects including SSHRC/MCRI research on Muslim diasporas, Ford Foundation on Muslim Diasporas in the West, and CIDA/AUCC Canada Corps University Partnership Program in Public administration for Palestinians, and is now a co-Director of the international research project on Muslims in the West.

He was cited in the Maclean’s Guide to Canadian Universities as a "most popular" professor in 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005, and won the York University-wide teaching excellence award in 2004. In 2007, he won the prestigious Government of Ontario’s Leadership in Faculty Teaching Award.