Dr. Atyeh Ashtari

The Meeting Place - Black and Iranian Feminist Political Economics

Our seventh and final episode of Season 2 features our newest DISE member, Dr. Atyeh Ashtari! As a highly interdisciplinary scholar born and raised in Iran, she provides a fresh and nuanced perspective on transnational solidarity. Dr. Ashtari illustrates how Black Feminist scholarship, through concepts such as lived experience and intersectionality, allowed her to put this scholarship in conversation with that of Iranian feminist political economics. As she and your host, Serena Bahadur, traverse the lives and roles of the Iranian women in the informal and formal economy, the illusion of their homogeneity breaks and the role of Sandooq becomes clear. For the first time on the Diverse Economies for Youth podcast, we welcome you to listen in on why Iranian and Black solidarity in scholarship and beyond can bring us closer to the collectivity and humanity we seek. Take the plunge and learn what we might find when we finally arrive at our meeting place.

About

Dr. Atyeh Ashtari is an Iranian professor of City and Regional Planning. She recently completed her doctoral degree in Urban Planning at the University of Illinois. As an incredibly interdisciplinary scholar, her studies lie within the realms of intersectional humane urbanism, sustainable community-based development, community economies, and critical feminist methodologies, just to name a few. In doing so, Dr. Ashtari always centers community as her main unit of analysis and emphasis. She has co-authored several publications, such as “Constructing Solidaries For a Humane Urbanism”, with many more forthcoming. Dr. Ashtari has served as an organizer for the Iranian Heritage Foundation, received the Mariam K. Chamberlain Dissertation Award from the International Center for Research on Women, and is currently the Vice President of ACSP’s Faculty Women’s Interest Group.