PhD candidate I Rita and Arnold Goodman Fellow

Biography

I am a fourth-year Ph.D. student in Sociology. 

While in Iran pursuing a master's degree in Gender Studies, I worked as the senior assistant with the Women's Worlds in Qajar Iran project ( http://www.qajarwomen.org/en/ ), a digital archive hosted at Harvard University. Before arriving in the US, I did some graduate studies in Turkey at Middle East Technical University (METU) and Ankara University. There, my research was centered around transnational feminist solidarities. In Turkey, I also collaborated with the United Nations (UN) on their projects related to LGBTQI refugees in Turkey. I earned a Master’s in Sociology from Maxwell School and advanced certification in Gender Studies from Syracuse University. While there, I had the opportunity to work with the Feminist Freedom Warriors (FFW) project ( http://feministfreedomwarriors.org/ ), which is a digital project hosted at Syracuse University, Department of Women and Gender Studies.

Research Interests

Social movements, digital activism, youth and resistance, sociology of gender, decolonial feminism, Middle East studies, Iran and Turkey.

Awards and Honors

The American Association of University Women (AAUW) International Fellowship, The American Association of University Women, Academic year 2025-2026

Rita and Arnold Goodman Fellowship, the Center for the Study of Global Gender Equity, UIUC, Academic year 2024-2025

The Strive Awards series’  Pat Morey Legacy Award, Women’s Resource Center at UIUC, 2025

 Pat Morey Legacy award "is given annually to one student whose work in gender equity will have a lasting impact on campus."

The Evelyne Accad and Paul Vieille International Award, the Center for the Study of Global Gender Equity, UIUC, 2025       

The Catherine C. and Bruce A. Bastian Scholarship Award for Doing Transnational Sociology, Department of Sociology, UIUC, 2025                       

Florian Znaniecki Graduate Student Publication Prize – awarded for best sole-authored published paper, Department of Sociology, UIUC, 2025

George L. Beslow Graduate Student Paper Award– awarded for best sole-authored sociology paper, Department of Sociology,  UIUC, 2025         

Awardee of the Clark McPhail Collaborative Research Award, Department of Sociology, UIUC,  2024-2025

Summer Writing Fellowship, Department of Sociology, UIUC, 2024

Courses Taught

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Introduction to Sociology (leading sections)- Spring 2022-23

Ranked as outstanding by the students

Introduction to Sociology (leading sections)- Fall 2022-23 

Ranked as excellent by the students

Syracuse University- Maxwell School

Sociological Theories-  Spring 2020-21

Ranked as excellent by the students

Additional Campus Affiliations

The Center for the Study of Global Gender Equity