Biography

Ladan Zarabadi (she/her/hers) received her M.A. in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (WGSS) and her Ph.D. in Architecture from University of Cincinnati (UC). Her interdisciplinary research projects highlight the influence of patriarchal systems (and feminist activism as a response) on shaping urban public spaces and built environments. In her architectural doctoral dissertation, she examined how institutionalized Islamic patriarchy and Iranian feminist movements (in response to that patriarchy) influence production of space and change the perception/experience of the city under the Islamic Republic.

In her academic path at UCLA, Zarabadi situates Iranian feminist discourse in a global context, analyzing it through a transnational feminist lens. She scrutinizes how transnational feminism may function as a double-edged sword as a result of misconceiving (whether intentionally or not) feminist activisms/movements in a non-Western context (focusing on Iran). She dissects transnational feminism and discovers the pros and cons of this discourse, emphasizing the pros and finding ways to diminish the cons. She uses interdisciplinary methods and communications and networking tools in developing her doctoral research