I study the social and cultural history of the modern Middle East. I am conceptually interested in questions of modernization, subject formation, state-building, gender and the body, science, society and technology, poverty, and labor. I like to learn about the modern history of large cities in the region; more specifically about their margins and undergrounds.

For my dissertation, I am researching the history of blood transfusion in Iran. My project focuses on the material and discursive circulation of blood outside of bodies in modern Iran. I trace the anxieties created by the practice of blood transfusion among different actors, institutions, and spaces. My dissertation explores how after WWII, the technology of transfusion by utilizing the long-lived religious and political discourses of blood, and by appropriating the notions of kinship and intimacy transformed the relationship between the state and nation.

In the 2021–2022 academic year, I am a Graduate Fellow at Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies. I also serve as a Graduate Teaching Fellow in the McGraw Center for Teaching and Learning. Prospective students should feel free to contact me.

Education

2015–2016 Hertford College, University of Oxford

M.St. in Oriental Studies

2013–2015 Central European University and University of Vienna

M.A. in Women's and Gender History

2007–2011 University of Tehran

B.A. in Persian Literature and Language