SELECTED TALKS
October 25, 2023
The Dangers of Exaggerating Cultural Difference Between Countries in the News
Annenberg School for Communication. University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA.
October 23, 2023
Iraq: Twenty years after the US invasion and occupation.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg Hall, Rutgers University, Newark, NJ.
December 1-2, 2022
Media Practice in an Emergent World Order
Annenberg School for Communication. University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA.
March 3rd, 2022
Solidarity & Liberation - How do we organize across difference?
Inclusion week series: Building & Sustaining Equitable and caring futures
Center for Human Rights, Equity & Inclusion. York University, Toronto, ON.
January 27th, 2022
Media, feminism, and resistance in and beyond Afghanistan
Presented as part of the virtual panel Afghanistan through Afghan voices: Society, literature, & the arts.
UCLA Program on Central Asia, UCLA Asia Pacific Center.
September 22nd, 2021
Television & the Afghan culture wars book talk
University of St. Andrew’s, Scotland, UK.
September 14th, 2021
Afghanistan’s future: The U.S. withdrawal and the Taliban
Perry World House, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA.
May 13th, 2021
Video CDs and the South Asian Transnational Bazaar. Objects Across Borders: Conversations on South Asian Materialities
UCL Centre for the Study of South Asia and the Indian Ocean World, London, UK.
April 22nd, 2021
Television and the Afghan Culture Wars book talk
Muslim Ummah Speaker Series, Bard College, Annadale-on-Hudson, NY.
April 13th, 2021
New books in Asian studies: Television & the Afghan culture wars book talk
Sigur Center for Asian Studies, George Washington University, Washington, DC.
March 25th, 2021
Television and the Afghan culture wars: Brought to you by foreigners, warlords, and activists book talk
NYU Department of Media, Culture and Communication, New York, NY.
March 3rd, 2021
How to constitute empathy in the age of global terror?
Cinema and Media Studies Colloquium, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA.
March, 2021
Brought to you by foreigners, warlords, and activists: Television and the Afghan culture wars book talk
Sussex Asia Centre Seminars, University of Sussex, United Kingdom.
February, 2021
Television and the Afghan culture wars book talk
Klein College of Media and Communications Graduate Speaker Series, Center for the Humanities, College of Liberal Arts, and Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies, at Temple University, Philadelphia, PA.
January, 2021
Media, Gender, and Nation Building in Afghanistan book talk
Institute for Research on Women, Gender, and Sexuality, the South Asia Institute, and the South Asia Journalists Association of the Journalism School at Columbia University, New York, NY.
October, 2020
Reimagining queer futures: Afghans and art in the diaspora
Moderated and organized online panel, Afghan American Artists and Writers Association.
December, 2019
Local knowledge in the global village: How to constitute empathy in the age of global terror
Concordia Fine Arts, Concordia University, Montreal, QC, Canada.
April, 2019
Thinking beyond imperial feminism: International feminist solidarity in the age of hyper-masculinity
On Misogyny series sponsored by the Gender Institute of the University of Buffalo, Buffalo, NY
November, 2018
Unifying or dividing? The role of Dari and Pashto media in the Afghan culture wars
Persian Language Symposium hosted by the Middle East Center at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA.
January, 2018
Local knowledge in the global village: Thinking through media studies, digital media, and human rights
Digital Arts Spring Lecture Series, Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, MA.
March, 2017
Women writing about conflict regions
LIVE at the Kelly Writers House: Women Writing about Conflict Regions, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA.
November, 2016
A reading of contemporary Afghan women’s poetry
Kelly Writers House, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA.
September, 2016
Studying media worlds: Research, collaboration, outreach
Culture and Media @ 30: Past, Present, Future, New York University, New York, NY.
October, 2015
Af-Pak women in the age of pictures: Activism and digital media
Digital South Asia: History, Culture and Politics Conference, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI.
December, 2014
The emergence of a new Afghan cinema: Political economies of filmmaking after 9/11
Hagop Kevorkian Center, New York University, New York, NY.
October, 2014
Stigmatizing the artist but not the arts: A brief history of media and art in Afghanistan
Margaret Mead Film Festival, American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY.
September, 2014
Muslim women and the global world (dis)order: A case study of four Malalais
Symbolic Dimensions of Mediated Activism in Inter-Asia Symposium, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
April, 2014
Brought to you by foreigners, warlords, and local activists: TV and the Afghan culture wars.
Afghanistan: Assessing the Impact of 35 Years of Wars and Violence on Social Institutions, Ostrom Workshop on Afghanistan, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN.
February, 2014
Islamic media: Technology and the sacred
Technologies and the Sacred Symposium, Duke University, Durham, NC.
April, 2013
Saving “Afghan women:” Gender and the global world (dis)order
Images of Terror, Narratives of (In)security: Literary, Artistic and Cultural Responses Conference, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal.
November, 2012
Afghan women between bikinis, bombs, and burqas
Organization for the Advancement of Afghan Women Fundraiser, New York, NY.
May, 2011
On self-representation and transnational collaborations
1st Annual Afghan Film Festival in partnership with the Women’s Voices Now Film Festival, Rubin Museum of Art, New York, NY.
April, 2010
Afghan women in the digital age of pictures
Brown Bag Lecture Series sponsored by the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, the Center for South Asia Studies, & the Center for Southeast Asia Studies at UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA.
January, 2009
On the impact of war on a family and a country
Presented in conjunction with screening of Postcards of Tora Bora documentary at the Centre of Contemporary Central Asia and the Caucus (CCAC) Seminar Series, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), London, England, UK.
July, 2004
The Pashtun identity and the tribal belt
Area Study Centre, University of Peshawar, Peshawar, Pakistan.
October, 2002
Afghan women’s achievements and challenges one year after the United Nations conferences on rebuilding Afghanistan
Women for Afghan Women 2nd Annual Conference: Afghan Women Report, Barnard College, New York, NY.
February, 2021
Television and the Afghan culture wars book talk
Klein College of Media and Communications Graduate Speaker Series, Center for the Humanities, College of Liberal Arts, and Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies, at Temple University, Philadelphia, PA.
February, 2021
Television and the Afghan culture wars book talk
Portland State Communication Studies, Portland, OR.
December, 2020
Television and the Afghan culture wars book talk
Center for Advanced Research in Global Communication, Center for Experimental Ethnography, Cinema and Media Studies, Middle East Center, and South Asia Center at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA.
March, 2020
Stolen daughters: Kidnapped by Boko Haram post screening panel discussion
Wolf Humanities Center, Cinema and Media Studies Program, and the Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts at the University of Pennsylvania and Scribe Video Center, Philadelphia, PA.
September, 2019
Selling surveillance and strikes: The racialized line between killer and craft drones.
Life Under Drones symposium hosted by Pacific Lutheran University
March, 2019
Memories & temporalities: the South x Southeast Conference Center for Advanced Research in Global Communication
CARGC Fellows led conference at the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication, Philadelphia, PA.
April, 2018
Authoethnography versus the war on terror media industrial complex
Wolf Symposium: Documentaries Now, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA.
June, 2017
The Saur “Revolution” and the Islamic “Revolution”: How the communists and Islamists came to power in Afghanistan and Iran
Skype at Reading the “1979 Moment” in the Middle East, Forum Transregionale Studien, Berlin, Germany
March, 2017
Amateurs, activists, disruptors, fakers.
Wenner Gren Workshop, Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, PA.
October, 2016
Disposable journalists and prepackaged news: New regimes of censorship and dangers of wartime reporting in the wars on terror
Skype at Towards a Political Ontology of Violence: Reality, Image, and Perception Conference, Philosophy Centre of the University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal.
May, 2016
Warlord TV: Ethno-religious sectarian messages on Afghan TV
Afghanistan in the Modern World Workshop, Stanford University, Stanford, CA.
September, 2015
Rangeen Versus sangeen: Translational media and the Afghan culture wars
Cinema Studies Colloquium, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA.
December, 2014
Rangeen versus sangeen: Translational media and the Afghan culture wars.
Presented in conjunction with screening of Postcards of Tora Bora documentary at the Latitudes Graduate Reading Group for Empire, Race, Postcolonialism, Transnationalism, & Globalization, co-sponsored by the Cinema Studies Program and South Asian Center at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA.
September, 2014
Brought to you by foreigners, warlords, and local activists: TV and the Afghan culture wars
Distinguished Faculty Lectures Series, Center for the Humanities, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA.
May, 2014
Silencing the unruly: The lives, legends, and verses of early Persian women poets
Wide World of Persian: Connections and Contestations Conference, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
April, 2014
On media, social movements, and uprisings: Lessons from Afghanistan, its neighbors, and beyond
Workshop on Infrastructures of Empire: Mediated Activism and (Counter) Revolutions, New York University, New York, NY.
September, 2013
Between the White House and the Kremlin: A comparative analysis of Afghan and Tajik media.
Media and Democratization in Post-Soviet Nations Symposium, George Washington University Institute for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies, Washington, D.C.
February, 2013
New media, old media? Protests, riots, and media convergence in the uprisings of Iran and Afghanistan
From Tehran to Tahrir: Public Space Redefined Symposium at the Center for Global Communication Studies (and its Iran Media Program), the Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA.
November, 2011
Television, religion, and gender in the Afghan culture wars
Digital Religion: Knowledge, Politics, and Practice Lecture Series, New York University Abu Dhabi, New York, NY
May, 2011
Between a rock and a cave: The uneven development of the Afghan public sphere
Presented in conjunction with screening of Postcards of Tora Bora documentary at the Engaging Afghanistan Symposium sponsored by the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, Brown University, Providence, RI.
March, 2009
Thinking outside of the box: Gender and television in the Afghan culture wars
Centre for Gender Studies Seminar Series and the Central Asian Seminar Series, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, England, UK.
May, 2008
Veiled cinema: Meandering cultural landmines
Kassel International Documentary Film Festival and Workshop: Splice in Afghan Cinema, Kabul University, Kabul, Afghanistan.
March, 2003
Women of Afghanistan: Historical and current perspectives
Scarsdale High School, Scarsdale Teachers Institute, New York, NY.
November, 2001
The rights of women in Islam and community outreach
Afghan Diaspora in New York City at the Women for Afghan Women 1st Annual Conference: Securing our Future, CUNY Graduate Center, New York, NY.