Sholeh Shahrokhi is a Professor in Anthropology in the Department of History, Anthropology, and Classics, at the college of LAS at Butler University.

Dr. Shahrokhi received her Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of California at Berkeley in 2008. In the same year, she began teaching at Butler in the Department of History and Anthropology, and across interdisciplinary programs such as Race Gender and Sexuality Studies; Peace Studies; International Studies; and Global and Historical Studies.

Her scholarship focuses on explorations of power as manifested in an intersectional and discursive expressions of gender, race, body, age, religion and ethnicity, urbanity, as socio-cultural frames of differences.

Her research projects in Iran, France, the UK, and the United States have focused on the formation of gendered norms, ideas about sexuality, and most recently on the "crisis" of refugees in Europe and the political north. She has conducted research on art of/by refugees, creativity and aesthetics in political protest in Iran and across the Middle East; a gendered reading of visual politics of the body emerging from contemporary Iranian protest scene; alternative sexualities and lifestyles among young Iranians in the US; spatial claims to the city, the notion of trespass as resistance to urban violence among a category called "runaway daughters" in Tehran; contemporary trends in cosmetic surgeries, shifting ideals of masculinities, femininities, and beauty in Tehran. Her writing on Iran aims to diversify representation of the people, while remaining critical of strategies that exclude “others”.

Selected published works:

I. Book Chapters

Gender and Sexuality: An Anthropological Approach (2017), in Ethnology, Ethnography and Cultural Anthropology, [Eds. Paolo Barbaro], in Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS), Developed under the Auspices of the UNESCO, Eolss Publishers, Oxford, UK, [http://www.eolss.net]

Iranian War Cinema: The Art of RememberingPain, in the Iranian War Cinema: National Identity, Ethnic Diversity, and Gender Issues, (2012). Edited book by P. Khosronejad. S. K. Publishing, Oxford:UK.

Beyond “tragedy”: A Cultural Critique of SexTrafficking of Young Iranian Women, in Sex Trafficking, Human Rights, andSocial Justice, (2010). Edited volume by T. Zheng. Routledge, NY.

II. Articles:

Life jackets on shore: Anthropology, refugees, and the politics of belonging in Europe, in Anthropology of the Contemporary Middle East and Central Eurasia 4(2):11-33. (2018). Sean KingstonPublishing. Oxford: UK.

Body Aesthetics and Protest Art In Contemporary Iran (2014)

Adolescents' perspective on addiction (2005) co-author.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1442-2018.2005.00237.x/full

III. Selected Conference Papers:

"Family Albums in Flux: Portraits of life and memory across borders." Photo Albums Twisted Meaning: Between nostalgia and trauma. Institute of Art History of the Czech Academy of Sciences and DOX - Center for Contemporary Art. Prague, Cz. (November 2021).

"Life in Fragments: Anthropology and Art Across the Border". Hostile Terrain 94. Butler University. (October 2021).

"Crossing the Border: Anthropology, identity politics, and the role of Art." A workshop organized by Zanan: Iranian Women in Northern California (April 2021).

“Art-Activism - an exercise in love: Stories from Iranian refugees living in Europe.” Didar VaGoftar Seminar: A critical inquiry special group of Iranians in Indiana. Zionsville, Indiana. (2019)

“Between Lights andShadows: The art of ‘seeing’ refugees.” European Association of SocialAnthropologists (EASA). Staying, Moving, and Settling conference. StockholmUniversity. Stockholm, Sweden. (2018).

“Living as Trans*: The experiences from fieldwork in Tehran, Iran.” Transgender Lives in GlobalPerspective: Trans Lives in Iran. Religion Seminar by the Center for Faith andVocation at Butler University and the Desmond Tutu Center at the ChristianTheological Seminary. (2016)

Engendering the Protester: Body politics and sexual representation of the Iranian protests (2012)
https://gws.as.uky.edu/engendering-protester-body-politics-and-sexual-representation-iranian-political-protest-dr-sholeh

Body Beautiful: Making the Figure of Women in Film, Contemplation on the Iranian New Wave Cinema of the Past Decade (2009)
https://escholarship.org/uc/item/92f6p1p8

Courses (Butler):

I. Core Courses in the Social World
SW 215 Being Human: An Introduction to Anthropology (Social Justice Diversity approved)
SW 233 Political Islam in Paris

II. Core Courses in Global and Historical Studies
GHS207 Global Women: Rights and Resistance
(Cross-listed: Gender Women Sexuality Studies, Social Justice Diversity approved)
GHS211 Modern Middle East and North Africa (Social Justice Diversity approved)

II. Core Courses in Perspectives in the Creative Arts
PCA 215 Art Across Borders: Refugees in Political North

IV. Courses in Anthropology (Majors/Minors)
AN 311 Trespass: Anthropology of Power & Difference
(Cross-listed: Peace and Conflict Studies, International Studies)
AN 315 Gender and Colonialism (Cross-listed: GWSS)
AN 320 Gender and Sexuality Through Globalization (Cross-listed: GWSS)
AN 326 Youth and Global Cinema (cross-listed: IS and PACS)
AN 328 Popular Culture: Michael Jackson
AN 340 Non-western Art: Ethnographic Art
AN 345 Conflict Resolution Through Art (Cross-listed: PACS, IS)
AN 352 Anthropological Method: Ethnography (Writing: WAC)
AN 368 Coming of Age in the Middle East (Cross-listed: PACS)
AN 390 Anthropological Theory

Sholeh Shahrokhi

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