Revolutions and Rough Cuts: Conceptualizing Women's Bodies in Contemporary Iran
7 Lexington Avenue Apt 1e New York, NY 10010
Main Faculty Adviser: Hamid Dabashi; Co-Advisers: Gil Anidjar and Neferti Tadiar
This dissertation challenges the dominant, scholarly discourse on Iranian women, which tends to (re)present them as political and/or religious subjects, in lieu of women attempting to navigate and construct meaning for themselves in such a complex, sociological terrain. By tracing the scandalizing of women’s bodies after 1979’s revolution, I explore how Iranian women and their “symbolic” body part(s) are conscripted into a larger political project dictating piety and the maternal through contemporary religious and media discourses. I also analyze the gendering, imagining, governing, and mutilation of the female body within Iran-- in text, speech, space, and most importantly, practice.
Contemporary Islamic Civilization Persian Language Beginning and Intermediate Levels Introduction to South Asian and Middle East Civilizations Medieval and Modern Islamic Political Thought
Women and Society Conference, Marist College Co-presentation with Leila Mouri, Paper: “Sorting Between Two Ideologies: Iranian Women's Activists Between Islamism and Islamophobia” Women’s Worlds 2011 Program, University of Ottawa Paper: “Gender Issues in the Use of Images of Women's Bodies in the Media in India, Iran, Italy” A Middle East PhD Students International Conference, London Middle East Institute, SOAS, University of London Paper: “Revolutions and Rough Cuts: Conceptualizing Women’s Bodies in Contemporary Iran” Middle East North Africa (MENA) Workshop, Columbia University Paper: “Revolutions and Rough Cuts: Conceptualization Women’s Bodies in Iranian Media Iran: Future Prospects Conference, Stanford University Paper: “Creating a Women's Movement in Iran: NGOTC's Efforts at Gender and Civil Society Empowerment”
Graduate School of Arts and Science Jackson Fellowship 2008-2009; Foreign Language and Area Studies Summer 2006 Fellowship; Middle East, South Asian, and African Studies Department Summer Travel & Research Fellowship, 2005; 2007-2011; Houtang Foundation Grant 2005
Internships at UNIFEM, The Economist Intelligence Unit, and various human and women's rights organizations in Tehran