Maryam Abbasi
Maryam Abbasi
Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg Faculty of Humanities, Social Sciences, and Theology Cultural and Social Anthropology
91052 Erlangen
Germany
- Phone number: 01765760094
- Email: abbasimaryam525@gmail.com
Office hours
- 12:00 - 20:00,
- 09:00 - 14:00,
Biographical Note and Research Interests
I completed my master’s and bachelor’s degrees in social anthropology from Tehran University. During my studies, I have been working as an ethnographer with various organizations and NGOs to empower locals, especially women, and assist them in establishing an alternative livelihood. In 2010, I started doing fieldwork with a private anthropology institute in Tehran, focusing on traditional medicine in south Iran which later became the subject of my Ph.D. thesis.
The focus of my doctoral thesis was on the “*Zar ritual as an expression of gender identity in the Hormozgan province of Iran.” *Zar is a community-based activity that is used to treat people who are considered to be possessed. In my research, after classifying the Zar participants, I explored different reasons which lead them to the Zar ritual and how this participation affects their individual and social identity.
Now after finishing my Ph.D. studies, I would like to expand my doctoral research question to a more general one and explore what makes similar rituals and practices legitimate in the Middle East specifically in the Persian Gulf area as well as why people prefer them over other official religions and beliefs.
– Research title: Alternative Rationalities and Esoteric Practices in the Persian Gulf Area
https://cas-e.de/research-projects/alternative-rati%E2%80%A6ersian-gulf-area/
– Research Region: Persian Gulf Area
https://cas-e.de/research-projects/alternative-rati%E2%80%A6ersian-gulf-area/
Main areas of Interest:
Identity, Sexuality and culture, sensorial ethnography, Visual storytelling, Visual anthropology, Indigenous religions, Shamanism, Magic and Spirit Possession
Teaching Experiences
| Erlangen, Germany SS, 2024 |
Alternative rationalities, rituals and practices in Persian Gulf area, the course is also open to students from the Sociology Institute
Teaching at Elite Master Program related to SDAC, Friedrich Alexander-Universität Erlangen Nürnberg |
| Erlangen, Germany WS, 2023 |
What is WA? An introductory course on West Asian anthropology
Teaching at Elite Master Program related to SDAC, Friedrich Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg |
| Erlangen, Germany SS, 2023 |
Transgressing boundaries: digital as a space for esoteric practices
Teaching at Elite Master Program related to SDAC, Friedrich Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg |
Work Experiences
| Erlangen, Germany September 2023-September 2024 |
Post-Doctoral researcher
Funded by Büro für Gender und Diversity, Friedrich-Alexander Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) The digital as a space for esoteric practices: An anthropological study of Iranian contemporary esotericism |
| Erlangen, Germany October 2022-September 2023 |
Research fellow
DFG-funded Center for Advanced Studies (Kollegforschungsgruppe) “Alternative Rationalities and Esoteric Practices from a Global Perspective” at Friedrich-Alexander Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) The digital as a space for esoteric practices: An anthropological study of Iranian contemporary esotericism |
| Mannheim, Germany March 2017-July 2017 |
Researcher of the social project on integration of refugees in Germany’s job market
Institut für Mittelstandsforschung, University of Mannheim |
| Tehran, Iran January 2014-December 2015 |
Social facilitator
Reconstructing old texture in the districts 7 and 14 of Municipality of Tehran. |
| Tehran, Iran January 2013-December 2015 |
Supervising public workshops
in the districts 4, 17, 12, and 19 of the municipality of Tehran focusing on women’s empowerment |
| Tehran, Iran January 2013-December 2013 |
Social facilitator of study on “social pathology”
in district twelve of Tehran, focusing on “women’s addiction.” |
| Tehran, Iran January 2011-December 2013 |
Researcher of an ethnographic study of “lifestyle”
in district nineteen of Tehran |
| Tehran, Iran January 2010-December 2013 |
Researcher of an “Ethnographic study of traditional healing methods”
in Hormozgan province of Iran “Miras E Farda” The first private institute of visual anthropology, Tehran (Iran) |
| Tehran, Iran January 2012-December 2012 |
Social facilitator of study on the middle Zagros and Urmia Lake region to create an alternative livelihood.The Small Grants Program (SGP), funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and implemented by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) |
Education
| Heidelberg, Germany September 2017-July 2022 |
Doctoral thesis title: “Zar ritual and expression of gender identity in Hormozgan, Iran” |
| Jyväskylä, Finland September 2015-April 2017 |
Doctoral thesis title (not finished / I changed my university) “Zar ritual and expression of gender identity in Hormozgan, Iran” |
| Tehran, Iran September 2010-December 2012 |
Master of Anthropology University of Tehran |
| Tehran, Iran September 2005-July 2009 |
Bachelor of Anthropology University of Tehran |
List of Publications
|
2020, “Mirroring Values in Possession Ritual: A Biographic-Narrative Study of Female Participants in the Zār Ritual in the Hormozgan Province of Iran”, In the Shamaness at the threshold: gender, religions and the state in Asia, edited by Sophie Roche and Davide Torri, England: Routledge, book chapter (peer-reviewed journal article “SJR-indexed),2020, P: 225-244. |
|
2019, “Crisis, recovery, and gender identity in Iranian female participants of the Zār ritual”, SHAMAN (Journal of the International Society for Academic Research on Shamanism), Vol. 27, Nos: 1-2. P: 1-24. |
Work in Progress
| “Speaking with the Spirits” a special issue for Magic, Ritual, Witchcraft journal, the University of Pennsylvania Press. |
| Authoring an article in cooperation with Professor Conerly Casey and Dr. Habil. Bernd-Christian Otto, on “Solomon, the king of spirits: historical and ethnographic explorations”, special issue of Center for Advanced Studies in the Humanities and Social Sciences Alternative Rationalities and Esoteric Practices in a Global Perspective, Friedrich Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg. |
| “True Spirits/Wrong Bodies: Spirit Possession in Iran”, a book proposal based on my ethnographic research on the Zar ritual in the Hormozgan province of Iran, the proposal has been accepted by the University of Pennsylvania Press. |
Languages
| English | Written and spoken advanced, IELTS certificate |
| Farsi and Laki | Native speaker |
| German | C1 courses are finished / in process of learning |
| Arabic | B2, in process of learning |
| Kurdi | A2 in process of learning |
Honors and Awards
- Post-doctoral research grant, Stipendienprogramm zur “Realisierung der Chancengleichheit für Frauen in
Forschung und Lehre (FFL), Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Büro für Gender und Diversity, 2023, 09. 01-2024, 09. 30. - Completion grant, Heidelberg University, heiDOCS-program, the Faculty of Behavioral and Cultural Studies, 2020, 05. 01-2020, 31. 10.
- Travel grant from Heidelberg University to present at the second international conference of ISARS, “Relation,
connections, cosmologies, shamanism and spirit possession under the ethnographic lens” in Santiago de Chile, 2019. - Visiting scholar at Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Institute of Cultural Anthropology, 2017, 28. 03-2017, 28. 06.
- Scholarship at University of Jyväskylä, Finland, Institute of History and Ethnology, 2015, 01. 08-2016, 30. 06. Nation-wide first-ranked student in the national qualification exam for master’s study in the field of Anthropology, Iran, 2010.
Conferences
| “Tracing Transformations: an ethnography of the Zar ritual alteration in Hormozgan province of Iran”, International Society for Academic Research on Shamanism (ISARS), Sapienza University of Rome, 2024, 05. 58. |
| Chair at the conference of “The politics of authenticity in esoteric practices”, Waischenfeld Germany, 2023, 11. 15-16. |
| “Transgressing boundaries: digital as a space for esoteric practices an anthropological study of Iranian social media-based esoteric practices”, 20th annual conference of the European association for the study of religions and technology, Vilnius, Lithuania, 2023, 08. 4-8. |
| “Crisis, recovery, and gender identity, An Ethnographic Study on female participants of the Zar Ritual in Hormozgan Province of Iran”, presentation, The 9th Biennial Conference of the European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism and Practice, Malmö University, Sweden, 2023, 06. 26-28. |
| “Personhood, embodiment, and Zar ritual, (An ethnographic study of the power dynamics among the Zār participants in the Hormozgan province of Iran”, speech, Mid-Term Meeting organized by DGSKA AG Religionsethnologie, 2022, 10. 14. |
| “Crisis, recovery, and gender identity among the participants of the Zar ritual in Hormozgan province of Iran” (accepted for speech), European Conference of Iranian Studies (ECIS), Berlin, Germany, 2019, 09. 10. |
| “Objects as mirror of meaning in the Zar ritual” (presented as poster and speech), First international conference of SIEF Young Scholars Working Group, Göttingen, Germany, 2017, 03. 26. |
| “Poverty and homelessness in Tehran, Iran”, International conference on “Poverty Causes and Consequences in the Urban Developing World” in Jyväskylä, Finland, 2016, 08. 06. |
| “Qanat as a kind of traditional management of water resources in Iran”, International Conference of Traditional Management of Water Resources” (organized by UNESCO), Yazd, Iran, 2012, 06. 29. |
| “Traditional medicine in Gilan”, National Conference of Anthropology, Kerman, Iran, 2011, 12. 16. |
Skills
| Software proficiency | MAXQDA, Microsoft Office, SPSS, Adobe Premiere 2019 |
| Documentary film making | Summer class at Portugal film school 2021, 08. 15-28 |
| Didactic |
|
Other Activities
- “Whispers of the forest” (A documentary film on the Sweat lodge ritual in the Black Forest, Germany)
- Participating in a street photography workshop organized by Lutz Jäkel at Musik- und Singschule Heidelberg,
2024, 02. 07.