Biography
Soodeh Mansouri (She/her) is a Ph.D. student in Sociology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, with a graduate minor in Women and Gender in global perspective. Her research focuses on social movements and Political sociology in MENA. She holds an M.A. in Religious Studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara, an M.A. in Sociology from Tarbiat Modares University, and a B.A. in Sociology from the University of Tehran. She has conducted fieldwork in Iran, Iraq, and Tunisia.
Research Interests
- Social movements and social resistance
- Gender, politics, and everyday life
- Religion and politics
- Transnationalism and comparative sociology
Education
- Ph.D. in Sociology (in progress), University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
- M.A. in Religious Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara
- M.A. in Sociology, Tarbiat Modares University, Iran
- B.A. in Sociology, University of Tehran, Iran
Grants
2026-2027: IGI Graduate Language Fellowship, Center for the Study of Gender Equity, UIUC.
2026: The Catherine C. and Bruce A. Bastian Scholarship, Department of Sociology, UIUC.
2026: Audrey Borenstein Graduate Student Scholarship, Department of Sociology, UIUC.
2026: Summer Writing Award, Department of Sociology, UIUC.
2026: Conference Award/ ASA paper presentation, Department of Sociology, UIUC.
2025: Boost Summer Scholarship, Department of Sociology, UIUC.
2025: Conference Award/ ASA paper presentation, Department of Sociology, UIUC.
2025: Conference Travel Grant , Politics & Gender Conference, American Political Science Association.
2024: The Emerging Scholar Award, The Institute of Religious Studies, Spain.
2024: Conference Travel Grant, Graduate College, UIUC.
2023: Charles Wendell Memorial Award, University of California, Santa Barbara.
2022: Conference Travel Grant, Religious Studies Department, University of California-Santa Barbara.
Courses Taught
University of Illinois, Urbana- Champaign:
- Introduction to Sociology
- Sociology of Gender
- Religion and Society
Sociology of Food
University of California- Santa Barbara:
- Politics in the Middle East
- Modern Iran & Global Politics
- Introduction to Middle East Studies
- Modern World History
- Global Studies 1
Additional Campus Affiliations
Executive member of CSGGE: https://csgge.illinois.edu
Highlighted Publications
“Who gets the thumbs up? Navigating polycentric desires in Iranian blind dates”, Language, Culture and Society, John Benjamins Publication (2026).
https://www.jbe-platform.com/content/journals/10.1075/lcs.25009.man
“Ink Against Erasure: Women’s Letters as Everyday Resistance in Post-Green Movement Iran”, Journal of Feminist Anthropology & Gender studies (2026).
https://lovanetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/Lova-Journal-46-4-Ink-against-erasure.pdf
“The Art of Resistance in Islam: The Performance of Politics among Shi’i Women in the Middle East and Beyond”, by Yafa Shanneik, Cambridge University Press, 2022, Published Book review article by Middle East Librarians Association Journal (MELA) (2024)