SABA  ZAVAREI

ABOUT

Researcher | Artist | Lecturer | Writer

I work across qualitative research methodologies, practice as research and performance/art as research. I'm a trained architect and artist and the politics of body and space is at the core of my research and practice. My research interests and expertise span across the fields of spatial studies, performance studies, human geography, contemporary art, gender studies, Iranian studies and their intersections. I have published academic papers in peer-reviewed journals, book reviews and news articles in these fields. As a practising artist, I work across the media of performance, sound, video, text and installation and have exhibited my work internationally.

I'm the co-founder and editor of Konesh a journal on the politics of space and cultural interventions, and have established Radio Khiaban a podcast on gender and space in Iran . 

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To know more about my research and projects check here:

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EDUCATION

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PhD, Performance Studies/Sociology, Goldsmiths University of London, 2020

My practice-based doctoral thesis focuses on the creation of alternative emancipatory spaces of everyday life, through transgressive performances. I specifically look into singing by Iranian women and how, with all the cultural and legal obstacles, they find ways to express themselves through their voice. Exploring tactics with which to reclaim space used by women, I propose focusing on the body and the ephemerality of performance.

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MA Fine Art (Distinction), Chelsea College of Art and Design, UAL, 2012

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BA Architecture, Art University of Tehran, 2010

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Additional training:

Academic Practice Certificate – Goldsmiths University of London 2020

Teaching Critical Thinking through Art – Harvard University 2020

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