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. | M.Phil. | M.A. – New York University • 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. – Harrisburg University of Science & Technology • Department of Learning Technologies & Media Systems | Concentration: multimedia instructional design
M.A. – Purdue University • Department of Communication & Creative Arts
Concentration: mass media and gender studies
B.S. – University of Tehran • 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
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 International Studies.
Peer-Reviewed Articles
In Production | “Morality Police by (M)Any Other Name(s): Misappellation, Misdirection, and Emotional Miscommunication in Iran’s Woman*, Life, Freedom Uprisings.” Article forthcoming in Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society.
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.
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.
Essays, Reviews, Interviews, and Other Solicited Writing
2025 | “When Zan Became Zanjeer-Zan: Jina’s Revolution, Retold.” In Feminist Futures, edited by Narges Bajoghli and Sareh Afshar, 29 September. https://www.feministfutures.org/feminist-futures/when-zan-became-zanjeer-zan.
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, Concour-e Saraasari (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, Kargah 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)