Golbarg Rekabtalaei is a historian of modern Iran, and the Middle East at large. Her research focuses on the formation of a cosmopolitan modernity in twentieth century Iran through cultural exchanges and cinematic relations between Iran and the world. She is interested in the relationship between cinema and modernity, cosmopolitanism, urbanisation, nationalism, and revolutions. She pays particular attention to the role of cinema, in concrete form and onscreen, in facilitating urban cosmopolitan imaginations and hybrid subjectivities. Rekabtalaei's book, Iranian Cosmopolitanism: A Cinematic History, was published in Cambridge University Press's Global Middle East book series in 2019.

Rekabtalaei teaches undergraduate courses on the history of the Middle East and North Africa, as well as World History. She is also the Co-Director of the Middle Eastern and North African Studies Program at Seton Hall University.