2023/2024
Unsettling Borders: Shifting Discourses of Gender, Nation, and the West
The research explores the shifting critiques of Iranian intellectuals regarding pre-1979 Westernization in relation to the narratives of the nation and the subsequent transition towards critiques of Islamism in the post-1979 period. The project argues that while pre-1979 critiques are centered on the perceived existence of cultural alienation, post-1979 critiques are framed around nativism. A key focus is the pre-1979 cultural figure of the dandy, symbolizing social discontent and reflecting gender anxieties, contrasted with the socially committed revolutionary subject emerging before the 1979 Revolution. Archival research on post-1979 periodicals and literary pieces reveals changes in the representations of these two contrasting figures, exploring how these shifts align with changing gender ideologies and discourses of the nation. Employing an interdisciplinary approach, the study investigates canonical literary pieces, political texts, popular cultural artifacts, and periodicals, deepening our understanding of dialogues among theorists, artists, and scholars. It uncovers new insights into the interplay between politics, popular culture, and gender ideologies in shaping global political thought.
Border Crossings: Reimagining the Archives of Intellectual History Through Iranian Female Activists in 1960s and 70s Germany
This project focuses on the political thoughts of female students who were active in the Confederation of Iranian Students National Union (CISNU) and were also present at the June 2, 1967 protest against the Shah’s visit to West Germany, where a German student protester named Benno Ohnesorg was killed by the police. This research delves into the political performances shaping the construction of ideal revolutionary female subjects, while also exploring the notions of justice within their political thought. It traces the origins of these ideas within Iran’s contemporary social milieu at the time, as well as the political climate in Germany. This research, as part of my broader project titled The Role of Women Intellectuals in the Political Thought of Iran’s 1979 Revolution, aims to move beyond the conventional archive, expanding our understanding of which texts and voices deserve to be considered as political thought and as legitimate sources of investigation when writing intellectual histories. To include these activists who remained absent in the histories of twentieth-century Iranian intellectual thought, I expand the archive of political thought to include photographs, poetry, fiction, memoirs, pamphlets written by female authors, as well as oral histories. This project contributes to diaspora studies of Muslim immigrants in Europe and is located at the intersection of gender studies, literary studies, intellectual history allowing for a rich mix of source material and the creation of an interdisciplinary analytic context within which these historical ideas and artifacts elucidate and complicate each other.