Sholeh Shahrokhi
Professor - Anthropology, Department of History, Anthropology and Classics
Sholeh Shahrokhi is a professor of anthropology and of race gender sexuality studies, whose research and teaching focuses on an intersectional critique of power and explores cultural values that empower empathetic approach to diversity of human relations against systemic racism, sexism, and other technologies of exclusion. She received her PhD in Anthropology from University of California, Berkeley in 2008. In the same year, she began serving as a faculty in anthropology at Butler University in the Deaprtment of History, Anthropology & Classics, and across multiple interdisciplinary programs including, Race Gende Sexuality Studies, Global and Historical Studies, and International Studies.
Her scholarship takes an intersectional critique of power in everyday life practices, brining to focus intentional enactment of ethics of care in the face of human diversity and structural inequity. Her published work on anthropology of inclusions and visual culture include, a book chapter Iranian War Cinema: The Art of Remembering Pain (2012) that offers a gendered read of women in war cinema in the 1980’s and 1990’s, graphic novels and political change in Middle East and North Africa (2011), and a feminist reading of Farhadi’s cinematic repertoire (2012).
Additionally, she has published a number of articles on politics of the body as represented on screen in a global context (2009, 2015), and bodies in political protests in Iran (2010, 2016, 2024), art as protest (2012). Her research on the intersection of art-activism and asylum communities in Europe and in the US has led to publication of bookchapters and journal articles focused on border crossing art activism (2018, 2023), and photo albums as evocative articulation of memory and place-making among refugees and migrants (2024).
Selected published works:
I. Book Chapters
Between Lights and Shadows: Border Crossing and the Art of 'Seeing' and Being Seen (2024), in Entangled Histories of Art and Migration. Edited by Cathrine Bublatzky, Burcu Dogramaci, Kerstin Pinther and Mona Schieren. Intellect. Bristol, UK.
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. 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; Designated Social Justice Diversity (SJD)
SW 233 Political Islam in Paris
II. Core Courses in Global and Historical Studies
GHS207 Global Women: Rights and Resistance
Cross-listed: Race, Gender, Sexuality Studies(RGSS), (SJD)
GHS211 Modern Middle East and North Africa (RGSS & SJD)
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: RGSS, International Studies (IS)
AN 315 Gender and Colonialism (RGSS)
AN 320 Gender and Sexuality Through Globalization (RGSS)
AN 326 Youth and Global Cinema (IS)
AN 328 Popular Culture: Michael Jackson (RGSS)
AN 340 Non-western Art: Ethnographic Art (RGSS, IS)
AN 345 Conflict Resolution Through Art (IS)
AN 352 Anthropological Method: Ethnography
AN 368 Coming of Age in the Middle East (IS)
AN 390 Anthropological Thought: Theory