ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS
2024 –
Princeton University • Princeton, NJ
Associate Research Scholar, Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Iran and Persian Gulf Studies
2023 – 24
Brown University • Providence, RI
Artemis A.W. and Martha Joukowsky Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Gender & Sexuality Studies, Pembroke Center for Teaching and Research on Women
EDUCATION
Ph.D. – 2021 | M.Phil. – 2020 | M.A. – 2011
New York University • New York, NY
Department of Performance Studies
Dissertation: “Dying to Be Somebody: Performances of Death, Power and Personhood in Postrevolutionary Iran.” (Nominated by the Tisch School of the Arts’s for NYU’s University-Wide Outstanding Dissertation Award, AY22) Committee: Deborah Kapchan (Chair), Diana Taylor, Ann Pellegrini, Negar Mottahedeh, Kay Turner
M.S. – 2023
Harrisburg University of Science & Technology • Harrisburg, PA
Department of Learning Technologies & Media Systems
Concentration: multimedia instructional design
M.A. – 2010
Purdue University • Hammond, IN
Department of Communication & Creative Arts
Concentration: mass media and critical cultural studies
B.S. – 2008
University of Tehran • Tehran, Iran
Department of Chemical Engineering
Concentration: process design and management
RESEARCH and TEACHING INTERESTS
performance studies • media studies • queer and feminist studies • Middle East/SWANA studies • memory and trauma studies • materiality of visuality • politics of representation • practices of everyday life • histories of war and displacement • social movements theory • performative writing and oral interpretation
PUBLICATIONS
Book Manuscript
In Progress | Authority & Ambiguity: Performances of Death in Postrevolutionary Iran
Digital Humanities Project
2023 – | Feminist Futures. Launched May 2023 via the Rethinking Iran Initiative,
Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced Studies.
Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles
2025 | “Necrogeographies: War, Mourning, and the Aesthetics of Allegory in Gohar Dashti's Photographs.” Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies, special issue on “Memory, Feminism, Activism,” edited by Rosanne Kennedy and Sandra Young (Forthcoming).
2020 | “Postrevolutionary Retrojection: Azadeh Akhlaghi Stages 17 Deaths in Iran.” TDR/The Drama Review: The Journal of Performance Studies Vol. 64, No. 1 (T245): 36–61.
2012 | “Tracing the Image, Imagining the Trace: Seeing Through, Looking Between, and Feeling with Muriel Hasbun’s X post facto.” e-misférica, special issue “On the Subject of the Archives,” edited by Marianne Hirsch and Diana Taylor,
Vol. 9, No. 1–2: www.hemisphericinstitute.org/hemi/en/e91-hasbun-essay.
Translated to Spanish as: “Reflexiones sobre la serie de fotografías X post facto de Muriel Hasbún.” El Faro Academico (2013): www.elfaro.net/es/201310/academico/13627.
Peer-Reviewed Chapters in Edited Volumes
2026 | “Translocal Affects: The Shareability of Feelings and Third Wave Iranian ‘Runaway Brains.’” In I.B. Tauris Handbook of Iran and Iranians in the Modern World, edited by Cameron Amin (Under contract, forthcoming 2026).
2010 | “Are We Neda? The Iranian Women, the Election, and International Media.” In Media, Power, and Politics in the Digital Age: The 2009 Presidential Election Uprising in Iran, edited by Yahya R. Kamalipour, 235–250. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers.
Exhibition Catalog Essays, Reviews, Interviews, and Other Solicited Writing
2025 | “When Zan Became Zanjeer-Zan: A Story of Young Women Spearheading Iran’s ‘Zan, Zendegi, Azadi’ Uprising.” Feminist Futures (forthcoming).
2025 | “Counting to Forget: Memory at Work in Yasi Alipour’s Tessellating Holds and Folds.” The Studio Arts Dept. at Dartmouth College, in conjunction with an exhibition on the works of their Spring 2025 Artist-in-Residence, Yasi Alipour.
2023 | “Radical Democratic Leadership as Catalyst for Collective Will: An Interview with Barbara Ransby.” Interview by Sareh Afshar and Narges Bajoghli for Feminist Futures: www.feministfutures.org/feminist-futures/interview-radical-democratic-leadership-barbara-ransby.
2021 | Book Review: Staging Process: The Aesthetic Politics of Collective Performance by Rachel Anderson-Rabern. TPQ: Text & Performance Quarterly 41, 3–4 (January): 343–46.
2010 | “Fall: Neurotic Verses à la Reverie.” In Performing Fiction, edited by Barbara Browning, 57–68. New York, NY: lulu.com.
Playscripts
2010 | My Poetic Ancestry: The Veiling & UnVeiling of the Contemporary Iranian Woman. Full-length play, premiered at Purdue University, May 14.
Persian Articles
2006 | “A Brief History of Poverty in Iran.” Khayyam, Amir Kabir University’s Journal:“Class Matters,” Vol. 8, No. 3 (October).
2006 | “Buddhism: Religion or Philosophy?” Ravagh, Journal of Arts and Culture: “Sanctity,” Vol. 2, No. 1 (October).
2005 | “Meditation: Awareness or Admission?” Ravagh, Journal of Arts and Culture:“Us and Modernity,” Vol. 1, No. 1 (September).
Persian Translations
2024 | “Resistance and Love: Paths to Palestinian Liberation,” by Amahl Bishara. Feminist Futures: www.feministfutures.org/feminist-futures/resistance-love-paths-to-palestinian-liberation-amahl-bishara-farsi.
2023 | “May Their Memories Be for a Revolution,” by Faye Ginsberg. Feminist Futures: www.feministfutures.org/feminist-futures/their-memories-for-revolution-faye-ginsburg-farsi.
2023 | “I Want a President,” by Zoe Leonard. Feminist Futures: www.feministfutures.org/feminist-futures/provocations-farsi.
2023 | “Feminist Trouble/s and Palestine,” by Ilana Feldman. Feminist Futures: www.feministfutures.org/feminist-futures/feminist-troubles-and-palestine-ilana-feldman-farsi.
2023 | “Challenging Benevolence: What’s Revolutionary about Iranian Women’s Uprisings?,” by Arzoo Osanloo. Feminist Futures: www.feministfutures.org/feminist-futures/challenging-benevolence-iranian-womens-uprisings-arzoo-osanloo-farsi.
2023 | “Radical Democratic Leadership as Catalyst for Collective Will: An Interview with Barbara Ransby,” by Sareh Afshar and Narges Bajoghli. Feminist Futures: www.feministfutures.org/feminist-futures/interview-radical-democratic-leadership-barbara-ransby-farsi.
FELLOWSHIPS, GRANTS, and AWARDS
2024 | Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Iran and Persian Gulf Studies, Princeton University
2023 | Artemis A.W. and Martha Joukowsky Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Gender & Sexuality Studies, Brown University
2020 | Tisch Initiative for Creative Research Grant (co-awarded with Daniel J Sander), NYU
2019 | Tisch School of the Arts Graduate Scholarship, New York University
2019 | Department of Performance Studies Academic Conference Travel Grant, NYU
2018 | Graduate School of Arts & Science (GSAS) Travel Grant, New York University
2018 | GSAS Intensive Dissertation Writing Workshop, New York University
2017 | Graduate Research Initiative (GRI) Dissertation Writing Fellowship, New York University
2015 | Department of Performance Studies Travel Grant, New York University
2014 | GSAS Intensive Dissertation Writing Workshop, New York University
2013 | GSAS Travel Grant, New York University
2013 | Department of Performance Studies Travel Grant, New York University
2011–16 | William P. Corrigan Five-Year Doctoral Fellowship, New York University
2010 | Tisch School of the Arts Graduate Scholarship, New York University
2010 | Outstanding Graduate Student in Research Award, Purdue University Calumet
2003 | Achieved rank 23 in Iran’s annual nationwide “Foreign Languages” University Entrance Exam, Concours (41,364 entrants)
SELECT PROFESSIONAL PRESENTATIONS
Invited Lectures and Talks
2025 | La Sirène film screening and talk with Director Sepideh Farsi • Princeton University Third Annual French Film Festival • Princeton, NJ • April 1
2024 | “Ambiguity in the Archive: Performances of Death and the Iranian War Generation.” Mossavar-Rahmani Center Seminar Series • Princeton University • Princeton, NJ • October 23
2024 | “Dream as It Falls in the Eye, in Water, in Mirrors: A Conversation on Mathematics & Language.” On Yasi Alipour’s solo exhibition at Penumbra Foundation • New York, NY • September 14
2024 | “Dirt & Dust: Reflections on Reading-with and Revolutionary Counter-moods Stirred Up in Iran’s 2009 Uprising.” American University of Beirut, Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Media Studies • Beirut, Lebanon • February 19
2023 | “Woman*, Life, Freedom: Stories of a Revolution in the Making.” Panel speaker for International Women’s Day public event at Brooklyn Public Library, Dweck Center • Brooklyn, NY • March 8
2022 | “#MahsaAmini & Iran’s Feminist Movement: A Virtual Teach-In.” Rethinking Iran Initiative, School of Advanced International Study at Johns Hopkins University • www.youtube.com/watch?v=CydJNcM0EKk • September 30
2019 | “Looking at You: An Immersive Techno Noir Opera for a Time of Total Surveillance.” Public conversation with Director Kristin Marting, HERE Arts Center • New York, NY • September 13
2018 | “En-Gendering Desire: Queering the Nationalist Projects of 19th-Century Iran.” Guest lecture for Ann Pellegrini’s Gender & Performance course • NYU, New York • October
2016 | “Performing Ethnicity: Feeling Differently before Feeling Cultural Opposition.” Guest lecture for Cristina Beltrán’s Contemporary Latino Cultures course • NYU, New York • October
2015 | “Genealogies.” Guest lecture for Karen Shimakawa’s Intro to Performance Studies course • NYU, New York • June
2015 | “‘Good Liars Make Great Lovers,’ Great Lovers Make Gifted Scholars: The Celebration of Generosity in/and Theresa Carilli’s Plays.” Honoring Theresa Carilli’s oeuvre on the occasion of receiving the Outstanding Scholar in Performance Studies and Theatre Award at the Central States Communication Association’s Annual Convention • Madison, WI • April 18
2012 | “The Politics of New Media: How the Internet Has Shaped the Iranian Green Movement.” In conversation with Babak Rahimi, moderated by Peter Chelkowski, Iranian Studies Initiative, New York University • New York, NY • March 1
2010 | “The World 30 Years from Now.” In conversation with the Chancellor, Purdue University • Hammond, IN • February 9
Roundtables, Symposia, and Working Groups Organized
2024 | Roundtable Co-Organizer and Presenter, “Decolonial Retrospeculation:
Women of Color Feminist Temporalities and Imaginations.” National Women’s Studies Association, 44th Annual Conference • Detroit, MI • November
2024 | Roundtable Co-Organizer and Moderator, “Endurability: On Promises, Prisons, and Present(s).” Annual Pembroke Center Research Roundtable, Brown University • Providence, RI • April
2020 | Symposium Co-Organizer, “After the Cohort.” Tisch School of the Arts, New York University • New York, NY • February
2014 | Workgroup Co-Organizer, “What’s on Offer Today: Entering the City through Performance.” Hemi GSI Convergence: Bodies-In-Transit, New York University • New York, NY • October
Select Conference Presentations
2025 | “Buzzing X-Things: Entangled Marks of War on Bodies and Buildings.”
Performance Studies international, PSi #30: XXX Cruzo, Cruising, Crossroads • Fortaleza, Brazil • December
2025 | “Enduring Necrogeographies: Architectures of Grief, Abiding with the Dead.”
Middle Eastern Studies Association Annual Meeting • Washington, D.C. • November
2025 | “Defend the Dead, Confront the Archive: Feminist Approaches to Literary Resistance.” National Women’s Studies Association 45th Annual Conference • San Juan, PR • November
2025 | “(Un)Promised Futures: Disavowals of Fate and the Power of the Sovereign in A Threnody for Sohrab.” American Comparative Literature Association Annual Meeting • Virtual • May
2024 | “Critical Cuts & Connections: Transnational Feminisms from Yoko Ono to ‘Woman, Life, Freedom.’” National Women’s Studies Association 44th Annual Conference • Detroit, MI • November
2024 | “Assembling Cuts: Between Bringing Together and Coming Together” Performance Studies international, PSi #29: Assemble • London, England • June
2024 | “Translocal Affects, Linguistic Transports: Minoritarian Interventions to Linguistic Hegemony.” Performance Studies international, PSi #29: Assemble • London, England • June
2023 | “If Knowledge Is for Cutting, What Is Cutting for? On Iranian Women Rising & Cuts that Wander.” Middle Eastern Studies Association Annual Meeting •Montréal, Canada • November
2023 | “‘Have You Ever...’: The Limits of the Sayable of Migrant Life.” PSi #28: Uhambo Luyazilawula – Embodied Wandering Practices • Johannesburg, South Africa • August
2022 | “Maintaining Legal Status: An Unseen Durational Performance.” National Communication Association 108th Annual Convention • New Orleans, LA • November
2022 | “Vast Voids: War, Mourning, and Holding Space Together in Gohar Dashti's Sticky Photographs.” American Comparative Literature Association Annual Meeting • Taipei, Taiwan • June
2021 | “Portals to Other Worlds: Hypervisual Narrativization as Performative Tactic against State Repression.” American Comparative Literature Association Annual Meeting • Montréal, Canada • April
2019 | “The Performance of Unvisibility in Iran: Martyrdom & Self-Surveillance in the Age of Necropticism.” Screening Performance, Performing ScreeningSymposium, Center for the Humanities, The Graduate Center at CUNY • New York, NY • May
2019 | “Objects of Difference: Diasporic Bodies, Translocal Affects, and Passage over Positionality.” Forty Years and More: The Inaugural International Conference on Iranian Diaspora Studies, Center for Iranian Diaspora Studies, San Francisco State University • San Francisco, CA • March
2018 | “Postrevolutionary Retrojection: ‘Seeing History Rather than Knowing It.’” Visualizing Theory Conference • Center for the Humanities, CUNY • New York, NY • May
2018 | “Keeping Casual Time Together,” with Leticia Moreno-Robles. The Between: Couple Forms, Performing Together Symposium, NYU • New York, NY • April
2017 | “As Cities Overflow: Prolonging Performance in the Abiding Metropolis.”
PSi #23: OverFlow, Universität Hamburg • Hamburg, Germany • June
2017 | “The Grey Gap x Black Beats: Temporalized Space, Localized Time, and the Turbulence of Feminist Rhythms in Diaspora.” PSi #23: OverFlow, Universität Hamburg • Hamburg, Germany • June
2016 | “Staging Death in Iran: Extending the Limits of the Seeable through Azadeh Akhlaghi's Photographic (Re)Creations.” American Comparative Literature Association Annual Meeting, Harvard University • Cambridge, MA • March
2014 | “Reflective Rhythms, Reluctant Realities: Shifting Tempos and Modified Imaginaries in Rakhshan Bani-Etemad’s Underneath the City’s Skin.” Abiding Cities, Remnant Sites Conference, Center for the Humanities, CUNY • New York, NY • November
2014 | “Secrets in Motion: Between Discovering, Uncovering, and Recovering the City and Its Paradox.” Hemi GSI Convergence 2014: Bodies-In-Transit, NYU • New York, NY • October
2014 | “Vanishing Deaths: Where Have All the Martyrs Gone?” NYU GSAS Intensive Dissertation Writing Fellow, NYU • New York, NY • August
2014 | “The Secret Conspiracy of Everyday Life: Experiments in the Secrecy Underlying Urban Experiences.” Hemi Encuentro 2014: Manifest! Choreographing Social Movements in the Americas, Concordia University • Montréal, QC • June • Workgroup: “Affect and the City: Remapping Theatrical and Social Movements.”
2014 | “Inevitable Engagements: Affect, Linguistic Transports, and the Iranian Brain Drain That Speaks.” Citizens, Places, Identities: A Symposium, University of South Florida • Tampa, FL • March
2013 | “Now Then, Here’s How It’s Going to Be: The Disciplined and Disciplinary Body of the Female Mannequin in Postrevolutionary Iran.” PSi #19: Now Then: Performance and Temporality, Stanford University • Palo Alto, CA • June
2011 | “Nobody’s Baby but Mine: Ownership over Iran’s Young, Dead or Missing, Political Activists.” National Communication Association 97th Annual Convention: Voice • New Orleans, LA • November
2011 | “Together, Where Do We Stand? Locating Solitude for the Inter/National Solidarity Demonstrator.” MA Symposium, Tisch School of the Arts, NYU • New York, NY • May
2009 | “Internet Censorship and Blogging in Iran.” Purdue University Graduate Student Research Day • Hammond, IN • March
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Brown University Pembroke Center for Teaching and Research on Women
Spring 2024 | Woman, Life, Freedom: Global Feminist Liberation Movements
Montclair State University School of Communication & Media
Spring 2020 | Communication, Media, and Gender
New York University Department of Performance Studies
Spring 2019 | Performance of Everyday Life
Fall 2018 | Gender & Performance (TA)
Spring 2018 | Performance of Everyday Life
Spring 2016 | Final M.A. Projects in Performance Studies (TA)
Summer 2015 | Intro to M.A. in Performance Studies (TA)
Spring 2015 | Final M.A. Projects in Performance Studies (TA)
New York University College of Arts and Science, College Core Curriculum
Spring 2019 | Texts and Ideas: Antiquity & the 19th Century (TA)
Fall/Spring 2018 | Expressive Culture: The Necessity of Theatre (TA)
Fall 2016 | Cultures and Contexts: Contemporary Latino Cultures (TA)
New York University Department of General Engineering
Fall 2014 – Spring 2019 | EG1003: Introduction to Engineering & Design (Writing Consultant)
Purdue University Department of Communication & Creative Arts
Spring 2010 | Fundamentals of Oral Interpretation (TA)
Fall 2009 | Intro to Media Studies (TA)
PERFORMANCES
Restagings No. 3: Fall (CA)
October 2019 | Performer, 10½ hour collective ritual conceived and choreographed by Abigail Levine and staged by a community of performers, writers, and their witnesses • Fridman Gallery, New York
My Poetic Ancestry: Veiling & UnVeiling the Contemporary Iranian Woman
May 2010 | Playwright, director, performer • Purdue University, Hammond, IN
SERVICE
2025 – 26 | Co-Founder/Steering Committee, Artist Workshop Series
Center for Iran and Persian Gulf Studies, Princeton University
2025 – 26 | Committee Member, MESA Graduate Student Paper Prize
2025 – 26 | Committee Member, Sounding Iran Conference Review, University of California Irvine
2024 – 25 | Organizer, Mossavar-Rahmani Center Fellows’ Writing Group, Princeton University
2023 – 24 | Organizer, Annual Pembroke Center Research Roundtable, Endurability: On Promises, Prisons, and Presents, Brown University
2020 – 21 | Faculty Facilitator, LGBTQ+ Alliance, Uncommon Charter High School (Brooklyn)
2019 – 20 | Organizer, After the Cohort Symposium, Tisch School of the Arts, NYU
2018 – 19 | Faculty Moderator, B.A. Capstone Symposium, Dept. of Performance Studies, NYU
2018 – 19 | Faculty Judge, Annual Undergraduate Research Conference, College of Arts and Science, NYU
2018 – 19 | External Reviewer, Middle East Critique
2014 – 16 | Moderator, M.A. Capstone Symposium, Dept. of Performance Studies, NYU
2014 – 15 | Conference Staff, “GSI Convergence 2014: Bodies-in-Transit,”
Hemispheric Institute, NYU
2010 – 11 | Conference Staff, “States of Devotion: Religion, Neoliberalism, and the Politics of the Body in the Americas,” Hemispheric Institute, NYU
2010 – 12 | Member, Raha Feminist Collective: Liberation from Below
2008 – 10 | Secretary, Purdue University International Student Organization
2007 – 08 | Volunteer, One Million Signatures Campaign (Change for Equality, Iran)
2003 – 04 | Freshman Class Representative, College of Engineering, University of Tehran
OTHER WORK EXPERIENCE
Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), New York
Jan. 2023 – May 2023 | Senior Foundations Portfolio Manager, People and Communities
Harlem United Community AIDS Center, New York
Sept. 2021 – Jan. 2023 | Director of Program Development, Strategic Advancement
New York University Moses Center for Accessibility and Inclusive Culture
May 2019 – Dec. 2021 | Accessible Tech Specialist
New York University Libraries Knowledge Access & Resource Management
Sept. 2017 – Jan. 2018 | Middle East Collection Assistant
TDR/The Drama Review, New York
May 2012 – Sept. 2013 | Assistant Editor
e-Misférica Hemispheric Institute of Politics and Performance, New York
June 2011 – Sept. 2011 | Managing Editor
Sept. 2010 – June 2011 | Media and Web Intern
Purdue University Office of Institutional Research and Development, Hammond, IN
Jan. 2009 – May 2010 | Graduate Research Aide
Fanavar Petro Arya Engineering Co., Tehran, Iran
May 2008 – Aug. 2008 | Research and Development Associate
Pars Drilling Fluids, Tehran, Iran
May 2007 – Aug. 2007 | Lab Researcher
SKILLS
Languages | Bilingual: English and Persian; fluent in French; working knowledge of Arabic
Computer-Proficiency | Microsoft Office Suite; Adobe Photoshop/Audition/InDesign; Squarespace; WordPress; Final Cut Pro; Windows Movie Maker; Scratch; ViewletBuilder; ABBYY FineReader; JOOMLA CMS; HTML; HYSYS; MATLAB; C/C++; Blackboard; Canvas; Articulate; Illuminate; BranchTrack; Salesforce
PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS
Performance Studies international (PSi)
American Comparative Literature Association (ACLA)
Middle Eastern Studies Association (MESA)
National Women’s Studies Association (NWSA)
National Communication Association (NCA)
Modern Languages Association (MLA)