Research Profile

MFA candidate and researcher specializing in Persian textiles, cultural memory, and gendered labor in art history. My current academic projects span two trajectories: (1) a practice-based MFA thesis, Family Photographs and the Instability of Remembrance, which investigates memory and personal archives through relief printmaking, and (2) independent art historical research on Persian Kheshti carpets (The Woven Archive), situating textiles as symbolic archives of cultural memory and women’s labor. My work draws from semiotics, feminist art history, and Oleg Grabar’s theory of ornament, supported by language skills in Persian and English.

Education

2023–2026 (expected)
Master of Fine Arts, Visual Studies (Printmaking)
University of Missouri–Columbia, School of Visual Studies

2017–2021
Bachelor of Arts, Puppet Theater
College of Fine Arts, University of Tehran

2015–2017
Diploma in Graphic Design
Roshangar Art School, Tehran, Iran

Research Projects

• The Woven Archive: Persian Kheshti Carpets of Chaleshtar and Shahsavan as Sites of Cultural Memory — Independent Art History research project (2025). Explores Persian carpets as semiotic archives of cultural identity, ornament, and women’s labor, drawing on Oleg Grabar, Mieke Bal, and Persian-language sources (Qani, Afroogh, Tanavoli).

• MFA Thesis (expected):  Family Photographs and the Instability of Remembrance

• Statement: My work begins with family photographs and personal archives, which I approach as constructed and selective objects. I treat photographs not as static records but as clues for re-reading the past and questioning memory. Relief printmaking, particularly linocut, allows me to fragment, erase, and reinterpret these sources, mirroring how memory is unstable, distorted, and layered. Influenced by Junichiro Tanizaki’s In Praise of Shadows, I incorporate lighting effects to create shadowy veils across my prints, embracing partial visibility as a metaphor for memory’s fragmentary and interpretive nature.

• BA Thesis: Introducing and Classifying Animals and Creatures of “One Thousand and One Nights” for Designing Puppets (Supervisor: Dr. Poupak Azimpour Tabrizi)

Teaching & Academic Experience

Instructor of Record
University of Missouri–Columbia

• ART_VS 2700: Introduction to Relief and Intaglio Printmaking, Fall 2025 & Spring 2026

Graduate Teaching Assistant
University of Missouri–Columbia, 2024

• ART_VS 1020: Introduction to Visual Studies

Studio Technician
University of Missouri–Columbia

• Printmaking Studio Technician (2023–2024)

• Sculpture Studio Technician (2023)

Exhibitions (Selected)

2025-2024

• Mapping Through…, MFA Graduate Showcase, University of Missouri–Columbia

• Open Studio, University of Missouri–Columbia

• Varsity Art 29, St. Louis, MO

• Post-Midwest, Graduate Showcase, University of Missouri–Columbia

• Woven Memories, Ellis Library, University of Missouri–Columbia

2022–2021

• 27th Iranian Youth Visual Arts Exhibition, Tehran

• Persian Youth Printmaking Group Show, Tehran

• 26th Iranian Youth Visual Arts Exhibition, Tehran

2015–2017

• Annual Student Showcase, Roshangar Art School, Tehran

Awards & Fellowships (Selected)

2025,2026

·       Brooke & Ben Cameron Art Scholarship

2024

·        Ann Stevens Hoffman Memorial Scholarship

2021

• New Ideas Award, Tehran-Mobarak 18th Puppet Festival, Tehran

• Best Director, The Pearce Sisters, Puppet Theater Festival, University of Art, Tehran

• Best Scene Designer, The Pearce Sisters, Puppet Theater Festival, University of Art, Tehran

• Second Place, Puppeteer, The Pearce Sisters, Puppet Theater Festival, University of Art, Tehran

• Second Place, Puppet Designer, The Pearce Sisters, Puppet Theater Festival, University of Art, Tehran

2020

• Illustration Award, 27th Iranian Youth Visual Arts Festival, Tehran

2019

• Best Scenery Designer, Four Thousand Feet, 19th Experience Festival, University of Tehran

Workshops & Training (selected)

• Creative Art Making — Mentor: Mehrdad Jafari (Tehran, 2023)

• Printmaking (Advanced) — Flesh School, Mentor: Shiva Sarlak (Tehran, 2022)

• Digital Painting (Advanced & Intermediate) — Inverse School, Mentor: Ali Kian Amin (2020–2021)

• Creative Illustration — HOMASA Studio, Mentor: Home Sedation (2019)

Skills

• Languages: Persian (native), English (C1), German (A2)

• Software: Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Procreate

• Research & Teaching Skills: Archival research, object-based analysis, semiotic theory, feminist art history, visual studies pedagogy