The University of Texas at Austin

Graduate Student, Middle Eastern Studies

Assistant Instructor

About

I am a doctoral student of Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures in the Department of Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Texas (UT). In addition to specializing in teaching Persian as a foreign language, I am interested in cultural studies and New Historicism. My research investigates transnational identity in cinematic, literary, and political discourses in the modern Persian-speaking world of Afghanistan, Iran and Tajikistan. As a master’s student at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at UT, I completed the Dual Language Track in Arabic and Persian with a thesis on the relationship between the Islamic and postcolonial traditions of modern Iranian drama. Since starting my doctoral studies, I have trained in Turkish, literary theory and criticism, Afghan and Iranian history, the theory and practice of translation, and language pedagogy. Prior to becoming an assistant instructor at UT, I taught for years at various settings. Initially I served as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant in Germany after receiving my BA in German Studies summa cum laude from the University of California, San Diego. Thereafter, I taught English as a foreign language in California. At UT, I have been a teaching assistant for various levels of Persian as well for Iranian Drama, Introduction to Islam, The US and the Middle East, and The Arab-Israeli Conflict in Literature and Film. Presently I am teaching Intensive Persian. In addition to Germany, I have lived and traveled in both Iran and Tajikistan.