EDUCATION

New York University, New York, NY • Performance Studies, PhD • May 2021
Dissertation: "Dying to Be Somebody: Performances of Death, Power and Personhood in Postrevolutionary Iran."
*Selected as Tisch School of the Arts’ nomination for NYU’s University-Wide Outstanding Dissertation Award, AY22

New York University, New York, NY • Performance Studies, MPhil, MA • May 2020, May 2011

Harrisburg University of Science & Technology, Harrisburg, PA • Learning Technologies & Media Studies, MS • Concentration in multimedia instructional design • May 2023

Purdue University, Hammond, IN • Communication, MA • Concentration in media and cultural studies • May 2010

University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran • Chemical Engineering, BS • Concentration in process design engineering • July 2008


PROFESSIONAL APPOINTMENTS

Princeton University, Princeton, NJ
Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Iran and Persian Gulf Studies
Associate Research Scholar
2024 – Present

Brown University, Providence, RI
Pembroke Center for Teaching and Research on Women
Artemis A.W. and Martha Joukowsky Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Gender Studies
2023 – 24 


AWARDS & ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Tisch Initiative for Creative Research
 New York University • Graduate Research Fund, co-awardee with Daniel J Sander • 2020

Tisch School of the Arts Graduate Scholarship • New York University •
Merit-based full tuition award • Academic Years 2019–20, 2010–11

NYU Dept. of Performance Studies Travel Award • New York University •
Spring 2019, Spring 2015, Spring 2013

GSAS Travel Award • New York University •
Dean’s Student Travel Grant Program • Fall 2018, Spring 2013

GRI Fellowship • New York University, Washington DC •
Dissertation Writing Fellow • Summer 2017

William P. Corrigan Five-Year Doctoral Fellowship • New York University •
Academic Years 2011–16

Outstanding Graduate Student in Research • Purdue University Calumet •
Academic Year 2009–10

Rank 23 in Iran’s National Foreign Languages Annual University Entrance Exam (Concours) • Academic Year 2003–2004


RESEARCH INTERESTS

aesthetics of everyday life • body-/bio-politics • cultural performance as political resistance • embodiment & excess • feminist theory • performance of fiction & performative writing • gender & sexuality studies • memory & trauma studies • narratives & poetics • media studies • queer theory • psychoanalysis • public affect • vision & visuality • temporality & rhythmanalysis


PUBLICATIONS

“Necrogeographies: War, Mourning, and the Aesthetics of Allegory in Gohar Dashti's Photographs.”
Forthcoming in a special issue of Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies on memory activism (2024).

Radical Democratic Leadership As Catalyst For Collective Will: An Interview With Barbara Ransby.
Interview by Narges Bajoghli and Sareh Afshar for Feminist Futures (2023): www.rethinkingiran.com/feminist-futures/interview-radical-democratic-leadership-barbara-ransby.

• Staging Process: The Aesthetic Politics of Collective Performance.” [Book Review]
TPQ: Text & Performance Quarterly 41, 3–4 (2021): 343-46.  

Postrevolutionary Retrojection: Azadeh Akhlaghi Stages 17 Deaths in Iran.
TDR: The Drama Review, (Spring 2020): 36-61.

Reflexiones sobre la serie de fotografías X post facto de Muriel Hasbún.
El Faro Academico (2013). https://elfaro.net/es/201310/academico/13627.

Tracing the Image, Imagining the Trace: Seeing Through, Looking Between, and Feeling with Muriel Hasbun’s X post facto.
e-misférica: On the Subject of Archives, 9.1-2 (2012): www.hemisphericinstitute.org/hemi/en/e91-hasbun-essay.

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, ed. YR Kamalipour. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers (2010). 235-250.

Fall: Neurotic Verses à la Reverie.”
In Performing Fiction, ed. Barbara Browning. New York: lulu.com (2010). 57-68.

“A Brief History of Poverty in Iran.”
Khayyam/Amir Kabir University’s Student Journal: Class Matters 8.3 (2006, Oct). Print. (Farsi.)

“Buddhism: Religion or Philosophy?”
Ravagh/Journal of Arts and Culture: Sanctity 2.1 (2005, Oct). Print. (Farsi.)

“Meditation: Awareness or Admission?”
Ravagh/Journal of Arts and Culture: Us and Modernity 1.1 (2005, Sep). Print. (Farsi.)

“Cuts and Connections: On Iranian Women Rising and Bodies that Revolt.”
Chapter submitted for consideration in the upcoming peer-reviewed edited volume, I.B. Tauris Handbook of State and Society in Modern (Winter 2026).

“Translocal Affects, Minoritarian Interventions: Sharable Feelings and Third Wave Iranian ‘Runaway Brains.’”
Chapter submitted for consideration in the upcoming peer-reviewed edited volume, I.B. Tauris Handbook of Iran and Iranians in the Modern World (Winter 2026).


PERFORMANCES

• Restagings No. 3: Fall (CA)
10½ hour collective ritual conceived and choreographed by Abigail Levine and staged by her and a community of performers, writers, and their witnesses • Fridman Gallery, New York, NY • October 2019

My Poetic Ancestry: Veiling and UnVeiling the Contemporary Persian Woman
Scripted and directed as final project toward earning an MA. Cast: Sareh Afshar, Ashley Calarie, Alexandria Govert, Stephanie Stroh. Purdue University, Hammond, IN • May 2010


SELECET PANELS, PAPERS, TALKS, AND WORKSHOPS

• “(Un)Promised Futures: Disavowals of Fate and the Power of the Sovereign in A Threnody for Sohrab.”
American Comparative Literature Association, 2025 Annual Meeting • Virtual • May 2025

“Decolonial Retrospeculation: Women of Color Feminist Temporalities and Imaginations” and
“Critical Cuts & Connections: Transnational Feminisms from Yoko Ono to ‘Woman, Life, Freedom.’”
National Women’s Studies Association, 44th Annual Conference • Detroit, MI • November 2024

“Ambiguity in the Archive: Performances of Death and the Iranian War Generation.”
Mossavar-Rahmani Center Seminar Series • Princeton University • Princeton, NJ • October 2024

Dream as It Falls in the Eye, in Water, in Mirrors: A Conversation on Mathematics & Language.”
Invited talk for artist Yasi Alipour’s solo exhibition at Penumbra Foundation • New York, NY • September 2024

“Assembling Cuts: Between Bringing Together and Coming Together”
and
“Translocal Affects, Linguistic Transports: Minoritarian Interventions to Linguistic Hegemony.”
Performance Studies international, PSi #29: Assemble • London, England • June 2024

“Endurability: On Promises, Prisons, and Present(s).”
Roundtable co-convener and moderator
Annual Pembroke Center Research Roundtable, ft. Alexander Weheliye, Mimi Thi Nguyen, & Golnar Nikpour • Pembroke Center for Teaching & Research on Women, Brown University • Providence, RI • April 2024

“Dirt & Dust: Reflections on Reading-with and Revolutionary Counter-moods Stirred Up in Iran’s 209 Uprising.”
Invited talk at American University of Beirut, Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Media Studies • Beirut, Lebanon • February 2024

“If Knowledge Is for Cutting, What Is Cutting for? On Iranian Women Rising & Cuts that Wander.”
Middle Eastern Studies Association, 2023 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 2023

• “Woman*, Life, Freedom: Stories of a Revolution in the Making.”
Invited talk at Brooklyn Public Library, Dweck Center • Brooklyn, NY • March 2023

• “Maintaining Legal Status: An Unseen Durational Performance.”
National Communication Association, 108th Annual Convention • New Orleans, LA • November 2022

• “#MahsaAmini & Iran’s Feminist Movement: A Virtual Teach-In.”
Invited talk with Johns Hopkins University’s Rethinking Iran Initiative • September 2022

• “Vast Voids: War, Mourning, and Holding Space Together in Gohar Dashti's Sticky Photographs.”
American Comparative Literature Association, 2022 Annual Meeting • Taipei, Taiwan • June 2022

“Portals to Other Worlds: Hypervisual Narrativization as Performative Tactic against State Repression.”
American Comparative Literature Association, 2021 Annual Meeting • Montréal, Canada • April 2021

“After the Cohort.”
A symposium in honor of José E. Muñoz, with Sareh Z Afshar, Joshua Javier Gúzman, Summer Kim Lee, and Daniel J Sander • Tisch School of the Arts, NYU • New York, NY • February 2020

“Looking at You: An Immersive Techno Noir Opera for a Time of Total Surveillance.”
Invited talk with Director Kristin Marting • HERE Arts Center • New York, NY • September 2019

“The Performance of Unvisibility in Iran: Martyrdom & Self-Surveillance in the Age of Necropticism.”
Screening Performance, Performing Screening Symposium • 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 • The Center for Iranian Diaspora Studies, San Francisco State University • San Francisco, CA • March 2019

“En-Gendering Desire: Queering the Nationalist Projects of 19th-Century Iran.”
Guest Lecture for Ann Pellegrini’s Gender & Performance course, NYU • New York, NY • October 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.” Coauthored with Leticia Moreno-Robles
The Between: Couple Forms, Performing Together Symposium, NYU • New York, NY • April 2018

“As Cities Overflow: Prolonging Performance in the Abiding Metropolis” and
“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 2017

“Performing Ethnicity: Feeling Differently before Feeling Cultural Opposition.”
Guest Lecture for Cristina Beltrán’s Contemporary Latino Cultures course • NYU, New York • October 2016

“Staging Death in Iran: Extending the Limits of the Seeable through Azadeh Akhlaghi's Photographic (Re)Creations.”
American Comparative Literature Association, 2016 Annual Meeting, Harvard • Cambridge, MA • March 2016

“‘Good Liars Make Great Lovers,’ Great Lovers Make Gifted Scholars: The Celebration of Generosity in/and Theresa Carilli’s Plays.”
Invited talk at Central States Communication Association’s 2015 Annual Convention • Madison, WI • April 2015

“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
Workgroup Co-Convener • Work Group: “What’s on Offer Today: Entering the City through Performance.”

“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 2014 • Workgroup: “Affect and the City: Remapping Theatrical and Social Movements.”

“Inevitable Engagements: Affect, Linguistic Transports, and the Iranian Brain Drain That Speaks.”
Citizens, Places, Identities: A Symposium • University of South Florida • Tampa, FL • March 2014

“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 2013

“The Politics of New Media: How the Internet Has Shaped the Iranian Green Movement.”
Invited talk with Babak Rahimi, moderated by Peter Chelkowski, NYU • New York, NY • March 2012

“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, New York University • New York, NY • May 2011

“The Bitch is Back: An Analysis of Sexist Media Framing in Hillary Clinton’s 2008 Presidential Campaign.” Coauthored with Natalie Wahlberg & Dorothy Snyder
Central States Communication Association • University of Wisconsin • Milwaukee, WI • April 2011

“Internet Censorship and Blogging in Iran.”
Purdue University Graduate Student Research Day • Hammond, IN • March 2009

• “The World 30 Years from Now.”
Purdue University Graduate Student Association Kick-Off Panel with the Chancellor • Hammond, IN • February 2009


TEACHING EXPERIENCE

• Brown University, Postdoctoral Fellow • Providence, RI
–Instructor of record for the undergraduate level Woman*, Life, Freedom: Global Feminist Liberation Movements course at the Pembroke Center for Teaching and Research on Women
Spring 2024

• Montclair State University, Adjunct Faculty • Montclair, NJ
–Instructor of record for the upper undergraduate level Communication, Media, & Gender course at the School of Communication & Media
Spring 2020

NYU Tisch School of the Arts, Adjunct Assistant Professor • New York, NY
–Instructor of record for the BA lecture The Performance of Everyday Life at the Dept. of Performance Studies                                                                                                          
Spring 2019, Spring 2018
–TA for the BA lecture Gender & Performance at the Dept. of Performance Studies
Fall 2018
–TA for the MA seminar Final Projects in Performance Studies at the Dept. of Performance Studies
Spring 2016, Spring 2015
–TA for the MA seminar Intro to Performance Studies at the Dept. of Performance Studies
Summer 2015

NYU College of Arts & Science, Adjunct Instructor • New York, NY
–TA for the College Core Curriculum Cultures & Contexts: Latin America at the Dept. of Spanish and Portuguese
Spring 2019
TA for the College Core Curriculum Expressive Culture: Performance at the Dept. of Classics
Fall 2018
–TA for the College Core Curriculum Expressive Culture: The Necessity of Theatre at the Dept. of Classics
Spring 2018
–TA for the College Core Curriculum Cultures & Contexts: Contemporary Latino Culture at the Dept. of Social and Cultural Analysis
Fall 2016

NYU Tandon School of Engineering, Adjunct Instructor • Brooklyn, NY
–Writing Consultant for EG1003, Introduction to Engineering and Design
Fall 2014 – May 2019

Purdue University College of Humanities, Education, and Social Sciences, Graduate Teaching Assistant • Hammond, IN
–TA for the upper level BA lecture Fundamentals of Oral Interpretation at the Dept. of Communication & Creative Arts with Prof. Theresa Carilli
Spring 2010
–TA for the BA lecture Intro to Media Studies at the Dept. of Communication & Creative Arts
with Prof. Yahya Kamalipour
Fall 2009

PAND English Institute, English Tutor • Tehran, Iran
–Private tutoring for pre-school and grade-school children
Fall 2006 – Fall 2007

Shoosh’s House for Children, English and Arts Instructor • Tehran, Iran
–Voluntary teaching in association with the Society for Protecting the Rights of the Child (Tehran-based NGO), with a student population comprised of Afghan girls ages 3 to 18 • Summer 2006 – Spring 2008

Ayandeh-Sazan English Institute, English Instructor • Tehran, Iran
–Taught beginner and advanced-level English to diverse groups of students
Summer 1999 


WORK EXPERIENCE

• NRDC, Senior Portfolio Manager, Foundation Relations • New York, NY
• January 2023 – May 2023

• Harlem United Community AIDS Center, Director of Program Development, Strategic Advancement • New York, NY
• October 2021 – January 2023

• NYU Moses Center for Students w/ Disabilities, Accessible Tech Specialist • New York, NY
• January 2020 – December 2020

• Sean Shahini LLC, Web Designer/Copywriter • New York, NY
• January 2020 – March 2020

• NYU Moses Center for Students with Disabilities, Administrative Assistant • New York, NY • May 2019 – January 2020

• NYU Libraries Knowledge Access & Resource Management Services, Middle Eastern Language Library Collection Graduate Assistant • New York, NY
• September 2017 – January 2018

TDR: The Drama Review, Assistant Editor • New York, NY
Served on the editorial team of the quarterly journal of performance studies, committed to the critical study of performances in their social, economic, and political contexts; issues T215 through T220
• May 2012 – September 2013

e-misférica, Managing Editor • New York, NY
Co-managed the compilation and completion of issue 8.1 of the Hemispheric Institute’s trilingual online journal, e-misférica, entitled Performance ­­≠ Life and devoted to tracing the interstices of performance art in the Americas (1957-2000)
• July 2011 – August 2011

Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics, Media/Web Intern • New York, NY
Assisted with design production, development, and maintenance of the platform and website of the Hemispheric Institute’s trilingual online journal, e-misférica, which brings together scholars, artists and activists throughout the Americas
• September 2010 – June 2011

Purdue University Office of Institutional Research and Development, Graduate Research Aide • Hammond, IN
Collaborated with the department on critical projects geared toward continuous evaluation and improvement of strategic initiatives and processes at Purdue University
• Feb. 2009 – May 2010

Purdue University Dept. of Computer Graphics & Technology, Graphic Designer • Hammond, IN
• January 2009 – May 2009

Fanavar Petro Arya Engineering Co., Researcher • Tehran, Iran
Junior researcher in the company’s R&D section where duties included innovating new techniques of energy management and writing proposals for research grants
• May 2008 – August 2008

Pars Drilling Fluids Co., Lab Researcher • Tehran, Iran
Helped formulate new, eco-friendly drilling muds by carrying out full analyses of their tri-phase fluid compositions
• Summer 2007

Ravagh: A Journal of Arts & Culture, Co-Editor/Sales Manager • Tehran, Iran
Editor of Thought section, responsible for journal promotion and distribution among Tehran’s top universities
• Summer 2005–2006  


SERVICE

Brown University Pembroke Center for Research and Teaching on Women
• Annual Pembroke Research Roundtable faculty organizer & moderator
• Providence, RI • April 2024

Uncommon Charter High School LGBTQ+ Alliance
Faculty co-facilitator
• Brooklyn, NY • October 2020 – September 2021

NYU Tisch, Dept. of Performance Studies
• Faculty panel moderator for BA Capstone Symposium
• New York, NY • May 2019

NYU College of Arts & Science
• Faculty judge for panel at the annual Undergraduate Research Conference
• New York, NY • May 2019

NYU Tisch, Dept. of Performance Studies
• Panel moderator & respondent for MA Capstone Symposium
• New York, NY • May 2016, May 2015

Hemispheric Institute, “GSI Convergence 2014: Bodies-in-Transit.”
• Conference Staff
• New York, NY • October 2014

Hemispheric Institute, “States of Devotion: Religion, Neoliberalism, and the Politics of the Body in the Americas.”
• Conference Staff
• New York, NY • November 2010

ACTIVITIES

Raha Feminist Collective: Liberation from Below, Member • New York, NY • October 2010 – December 2012
Purdue University, International Student Organization Secretary • Hammond, IN • Fall 2009/Spring 2009-2010
Hermes Publications, International Book Fair Sales Associate • Tehran, Iran • May 2009
University of Tehran • Tehran, Iran
     Graduate Ceremony Décor and Scenic Coordinator • Fall 2007
     Graduate Ceremony Film Special Director /Actress • Fall 2007
     Video Yearbook Developer and Interviewer • Fall 2007
     Class Internet-based Group Administrator • Fall 2003 – Spring 2008
     Freshman Class Representative • 2003–2004
One Million Signatures Campaign for Ending Gender Discrimination in Iran, Voluntary Signature Collector 2008 – December 2012


SKILLS

Bilingual • English and Persian; fluent in French; working knowledge of Arabic
• Computer-Proficient • Microsoft Office Suite, MS Project, G Suite for Education, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe InDesign, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Audition, Final Cut Pro, Windows Movie Maker, Scratch, BranchTrack, ABBYY Finereader, Viewlet Builder, WordPress, JOOMLA, HTML, HYSYS 3.2, MATLAB, C/C++, Raiser’s Edge NXT, Salesforce