Negar Mottahedeh
· Professor of LiteratureDuke University · Film & Media Studies
Active 1997–2026
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About
Negar Mottahedeh is a cultural critic and theorist specializing in interdisciplinary and feminist contributions to Middle Eastern Studies and Film and Media Studies. She has published five books on Iranian Cinema, the history of reform, revolution, and the uses of various media in protest. Her notable work includes '#iranelection: Hashtag Solidarity and the Transformation of Online Life' (Stanford University Press, 2015), which examines social media mobilization during Iran's 2009 presidential election protests and the development of online activism. Her recent book, 'Whisper Tapes: Kate Millett in Iran' (Stanford UP, 2019), explores the history of women's protests following the Iranian Revolution of 1979 through the lens of feminist and revolutionary narratives, using audio tapes recorded by feminist Kate Millett during her visit to Tehran. Currently, she is working on a project concerning contemporary networked social movements and their engagement with social media since 2009. She holds multiple academic appointments at Duke University, including Professor of Literature, Art, Art History & Visual Studies, Gender, Sexuality & Feminist Studies, and Asian and Middle Eastern Studies.
Research topics
- Sociology
- Computer Science
- Gender studies
- History
- Political Science
- Art
- Anthropology
- Art history
- Law
- Psychology
Selected publications
Stanford University Press eBooks · 2020 · 21 citations
1st authorCorresponding#iranelection considers the role of social media in the 2009 post-election crisis in Iran and, in turn, the effect of the Iranian protests on the development and adoption of various social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube.
Stanford University Press eBooks · 2020 · 21 citations
1st authorCorrespondingKate Millett was already an icon of American feminism when she went to Iran in 1979. She arrived just weeks after the Iranian Revolution, to join Iranian women in marking International Women's Day. Intended as a day of celebration, the event turned into a week of protests. Millett, armed with film equipment and a cassette deck to record everything around her, found herself in the middle of demonstrations for women's rights and against the mandatory veil. Listening to the revolutionary soundscape…
#iranelection: Hashtag Solidarity and the Transformation of Online Life
2015-07-15 · 19 citations
book1st authorCorrespondingDuke University Press eBooks · 2020 · 14 citations
Ethnopornography collects essays that both develop and critique the concept that gives the book its name. Ethnopornography, a term first coined by British anthropologist Walter Roth in the late nineteenth century, refers to the often eroticized observation—for supposedly scientific or academic purposes—of those deemed “other” by the observer. In Roth’s case, he was concerned that the descriptions and images he recorded of the bodily and sexual practices of the Aboriginal people he studied were i…
Cambridge University Press eBooks · 2021-07-01 · 10 citations
book-chapter1st authorCorrespondingDrawing on a close reading of the French feminist Des Femmes's documentary Mouvement de libération des femmes Iraniennes année zero made by a group of filmmakers and journalists associated with Antoinette Fouque and the Psych et Po, this chapter articulates the ways that the Iranian Revolution’s anti-disciplinary concept of “the planetary” ( jahani in Persian) situates the object of Iranian studies and the radical mission of the field.
Frequent coauthors
- 9 shared
Helen Pringle
UNSW Sydney
- 9 shared
Mary Weismantel
- 9 shared
Francisco-J. Hernández Adrián
- 9 shared
Rachel O'toole
University of Wisconsin–Madison
- 9 shared
Tomislav Z. Longinović
University of Wisconsin–Madison
- 9 shared
Joseph Zealy
University of Wisconsin–Madison
- 9 shared
Harriet D. Lyons
Wilfrid Laurier University
- 9 shared
Robyn Wiegman
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