Ladan Zarabadi (she/her/hers) received her M.A. in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (WGSS) and her Ph.D. in Architecture (History, Theory, Criticism) from the University of Cincinnati (UC). Her interdisciplinary research examined the influence of patriarchal systems on the shaping of urban public spaces. In her architectural doctoral research, she analyzed how an institutionalized patriarchy under the Islamic Republic was embodied in urban environments in Iran and how this embodiment led to the emergence of street protest-performances and feminist movements that transformed the perception and experience of these cities.

Zarabadi is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Gender Studies at UCLA, where her research explores Iranian feminist movements and the lives of women in Iran through the lens of transnational feminism. She investigates how the (mis)translation of women’s lives in Iran by feminist communities in the United States and certain European countries with varying political views influences feminist practices and resistance inside Iran. Along with analyzing representations of women in social media, her research examines how West-based feminist figures (including journalists and academics) with different political perspectives perceive and interpret the life conditions of women in Iran and what the local and transnational consequences of these views are as they circulate through social media.”