Bio

I learned theatre by making it. Growing up in Isfahan, Iran, I watched Ta’ziyeh performances with my grandfather and became fascinated by the relationship between performers and audiences. I began staging plays with classmates, and shortly after finishing high school, I started directing theatre for young performers. What began as curiosity developed into a career in directing, teaching, and creating theatre with communities.

Over the following years, I worked with children, university students, and professional artists in Iran, directing productions that ranged from puppetry and devised theatre to documentary performance. I earned my M.A. in Puppet Theatre from the University of Tehran, where my research explored the relationship between puppets, human bodies, and technology. Working in theatre also taught me to think critically about the conditions in which performances are created, particularly the restrictions placed on artistic expression and representation.

When I moved to the United States to pursue my doctorate, I began examining these experiences through theatre and performance scholarship. My research now focuses on Iranian and SWANA performance, feminist resistance, dramaturgy, puppetry, and actor training. My dissertation, Anger as Performance: Iranian Women’s Revolt as an Uncontainable Echo, investigates how Iranian women's anger becomes a means of knowledge, aesthetic expression, and political action. I defended my Ph.D. in Theatre and Performance Studies at the University of Kansas with honors in September 2026, with formal degree conferral expected in December.

I currently serve as a full-time Lecturer in Communication Studies at the University of Kansas, where I have also taught acting and theatre courses and developed undergraduate curricula. My scholarship and artistic practice remain closely connected. Questions that arise in rehearsals often lead to my research, just as my research continues to change how I direct and teach.

I remain particularly interested in the possibilities of performance to bring people together, challenge familiar assumptions, and create room for stories that might otherwise go unheard.