Elham Shahsavar

Ph.D. candidate in social anthropology at York University in Toronto

My research interests focus on the intersection of materiality, affect, and belonging. Using a transnational feminist lens, I interrogate the process of subject-making in relation to the art and artisanal market of Isfahan. This project is supported by SSHRC and has received the Michael Smith Scholarship, allowing me to be a visiting scholar in the Department of Women and Gender Studies at UC Berkeley.

Previously, I explored the question of belonging among different Iranian religious groups in Iran, earning an M.A. in Social Sciences from the University of Tehran, and among the diaspora, earning an M.A. in Sociology from Université de Montréal, where I was involved with the Chair of Canadian Research on Religious and Ethnic Pluralism. I have also been a teaching assistant for various courses, such as The Anthropology of Digital Media and Visual Representation, and Race, Racism, and Popular Culture.

Over the last ten years, I have collaborated with various NGOs and film companies in Iran as a freelance researcher, writing and recording the oral history of activists and volunteers in the non-profit sector. The results of this work have been published as books, chapters, and documentaries.

I was introduced to GDC during a summer school held in Beirut in 2022, titled “Moving Biography.” Since then, I have started collaborating with the Epistemology and Pedagogy Research Group.