Assistant Professor of Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies
Professor Aytak Dibavar's (Persian: آی تک دیباور ) scholarship centers Transnational Feminist Theory, Gender and Sexuality in the Middle East, Refugee and Migration Studies, and Queer Diasporic Ecologies. Their research has appeared in journals such as Global Constitutionalism, Kohl, Refuge, and Critical Studies on Security, among others, and they have two forthcoming books: Shadows of Nothingness: Queering Silence and Absence in Global Politics (Columbia University Press) and Queer Worldmaking of/in Exile: Ruminations on Soft Utopia (Routledge).
Professor Dibavar is also a multidisciplinary visual and performing artist. A unique feature of her work is making knowledge accessible to the public through creative mediums such as storytelling, theater, and printmaking. Their award-winning play, the little black fish, curates and archives queer and trans Iranian experiences in Iran and the diaspora. Professor Dibavar is currently working on a new script, In Sparrows We Trust, exploring what it means to be a queer Iranian woman in exile in the United States during wars and heightened conflict.
Professor Dibavar loves running, hiking, and ocean swimming! If she's not reading, writing, or printmaking in her studio, she's probably catching the high tide at a secret swimming spot or hiking through beautiful landscapes!
