Discipline/Field: Research 

Based in: Los Angeles, CA

About: Tahereh Aghdasifar is Assistant Professor of Women’s Studies at California State University, Dominguez Hills. She specializes in queer of color critique, performance studies, critical Ethnic Studies, and transnational feminism. Her work focuses on questions of sociality, opacity, and the economy.

Project Title: Queering the Quotidian: Subjecthood and Everyday Erotics in Tehran discusses Tehran’s bra shops as a valuable site to measure the interplay between women’s homosociality and the Iranian economy, demonstrating how the erotic is a necessary tool to understand the gendered ramifications of Iranian theocratic neoliberalism. The final chapter – to be completed at Yefe Nof – brings Aghdasifar’s larger analysis into the contemporary moment with a timely articulation of the on-going protests for women’s rights in Iran. Specifically it integrates an analysis of a traditional labor chant (which loses its rhyme in English) “Bread, work, freedom! Governing by Council!” with a new gendered version: “Bread, work, freedom! Optional headscarves!” 

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