Maryam Aras | Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn (original) (raw)
Education:
10/2015 – present PhD Student in the doctorate program 'Bonn International Graduate Schools – Oriental and Asian Studies (BIGS-OAS)'
02-04/2012 Talent Workshop for Young Journalists ('WDR grenzenlos') West German Public Broadcasting Corporation
10/2010 – present PhD Student at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, University of Cologne, based at the Institute for Oriental Studies
10/2001-06/2009 Magistra Artium (M.A.): Political Sciences, Oriental Studies and English/American Literature, University of Cologne, with first-class Honours
Employment:
10/2016-02/2017 stand-in Lectureship for Prof. M. Gronke at Institute for Oriental Studies, University of Cologne
04-07/2014 Lectureship at GestiK, Gender Studies University of Cologne
2010 – present Freelance Writer for Radio, Print and Online Media in the Field of Religion, Culture and Politics in Iran, Literature, German-Iranian Diaspora, Migration and Interculturality
Supervisors: Prof. Stephan Conermann and Prof. Katajun Amirpur
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Papers by Maryam Aras
Anthropology of the Middle East, 2016
COLLATERAL - Online Journal for Cross-Cultural Close Readings, 2021
Ausgehend von dem Dokumentarfilm "Der Polizeistaatsbesuch" befasst sich der Essay mit dem Übersch... more Ausgehend von dem Dokumentarfilm "Der Polizeistaatsbesuch" befasst sich der Essay mit dem Überschreiben des iranisch-migrantischen Aktivismus der Confederation Iranischer Studenten (CISNU) im Erinnern an 1968 und ihrer Rolle in der deutschen Studierendenbewegung 1967/68.
The American Weird - Concept and Medium, 2020
In her two feature films A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014) and The Bad Batch (2016), Amirpo... more In her two feature films A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014) and The Bad Batch (2016), Amirpour rearranges classic American genres as the Western and the Gothic movie, and she does it in a weirded fashion. Building upon long established and postmodern imagery alike, she creates new meaning by resignifying and hybridizing those proto-American traditions. How does the weird in her work correlate with her stance of becoming American through watching the Making of Michael Jackson’s Thriller documentary? This chapter takes Amirpour’s self-placement as a starting point to discuss her understanding of Americanness which is—as argued here—fundamentally tied to the weird in her to-date two full-length movies. Characterizing her first movie as an “Iranian vampire spaghetti western” and setting her second film in an outdoor prison across the Texas desert inhabited by followers of a grotesque cult, Amirpour creates the western landscape as a “thematic space” (Bal 2009) that acts through resignification and hybridization of long-established U.S.-American imagery. In this chapter, I argue that both films make use of the weird as a basic principle of Amirpour’s vision of America.
Anthropology of the Middle East, Volume 11, 2016
'Vampires, Veils and the Western Gaze – Gender Images and the Notion of Beauty from Qajar to Postrevolutionary Iran', in: Whiskin, Margaux/ Bagot, David (eds.): Iran and the West. Cultural Perceptions from the Sasanian Empire to the Islamic Republic, London: I.B. Tauris, 2018
Sehepunkte Forum Islamische Welten, 2018
"Music was one of the first official casualties in 1979" (3), Nahid Siamdoust marks the beginning... more "Music was one of the first official casualties in 1979" (3), Nahid Siamdoust marks the beginning of her book "Soundtrack of the Revolution: the Politics of Music in Iran". In this in-depth study, which is based on the author's doctoral dissertation, Siamdoust provides a broad historical and biographical account of modern Iran's musical scenes and the political circumstances surrounding, enabling and impeding them. The work is conceptualised as a political history of modern Iran, narrated through the lens of music.
For full review see http://www.sehepunkte.de/2018/04/31674.html
Talks by Maryam Aras
Abstract of paper given at the Interdisciplinary and International Conference: The American Weird... more Abstract of paper given at the Interdisciplinary and International Conference: The American Weird: Ecologies & Geographies 12-14 April 2018 at University of Göttingen
Since Safavīd rule over Iranian territories (from 1501 on) the ritual singing of Madh has been a ... more Since Safavīd rule over Iranian territories (from 1501 on) the ritual singing of Madh has been a popular variation of Shiite commemoration culture during Moharram. Along with Khomeini's anti-Shah mobilisation on tape, the distribution of Madh, Noheh and Rouzeh Khānī became technologised and applied the mythology of Imam Hossein's martyrdom at Karbalāʼ to contemporary political dissent. After the Iranian Revolution, the Maddāhī rituals moved from the private into the public space and became an important tool of war mobilisation for the "Culture of Holy Defence" (Farhang-e Defā-'e Moghaddas) against Iraq in the First Gulf War (1980 until 1988) as well as a means of modern nation-building for the newly established Islamic Republic.
In my presentation I will firstly trace the rise of the Maddāhān singers from their agitational functions for religious groups such as the Heyʾathā-ye Moʾtalefa-ye Eslāmī during the 1970s to their role in the Culture of Holy Defence – at home and at the front. Secondly, I will illustrate the ideological contribution of their performances and lyrics to the semantic shift of martyrdom as a concept of collective grievability (Butler 2009) for the mostaza'fïn, as graphically showcased in Morteza Āvīnī's war documentary 'The Chronicles of Victory' (Revāyat-e Fath).
Since the Safavid era, the ritual singing of Madh has been a popular alternation in Iranian relig... more Since the Safavid era, the ritual singing of Madh has been a popular alternation in Iranian religious culture. The elegiac songs about the martyrdom of Hoseyn and his companions in Karbala aim to induce emotionality in the audience: crying, breast-beating, ectasy. Only in the course of the 1978/79 revolution, the role of the Maddah as an agitator started to loom. In my presentation I will trace the rise of the Maddahan from their agitational functions for religious groups such as the Hey’ate Motalefeh during the 1970s, to their contributions to the “culture of holy defence” in the Iran/Iraq War and and their performances in propaganda films like the Revayate Fath Series until the culmination of their role as a major cultural pillar of Khamene’i’s post-revolutionary Islamic Republic.
Abstract of Conference Talk at the XIII Annual Conference of the Italian Society for Middle Easte... more Abstract of Conference Talk at the XIII Annual Conference of the Italian Society for Middle Eastern Studies (SeSaMO), University of Catania, Italy
17-19 March 2016
MIGRANTS: COMMUNITIES, BORDERS, MEMORIES, CONFLICTS
For the complete manuscript of the presentation see section PRESENTATIONS
by Maryam Aras, M. A., University of Cologne
Anthropology of the Middle East, 2016
COLLATERAL - Online Journal for Cross-Cultural Close Readings, 2021
Ausgehend von dem Dokumentarfilm "Der Polizeistaatsbesuch" befasst sich der Essay mit dem Übersch... more Ausgehend von dem Dokumentarfilm "Der Polizeistaatsbesuch" befasst sich der Essay mit dem Überschreiben des iranisch-migrantischen Aktivismus der Confederation Iranischer Studenten (CISNU) im Erinnern an 1968 und ihrer Rolle in der deutschen Studierendenbewegung 1967/68.
The American Weird - Concept and Medium, 2020
In her two feature films A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014) and The Bad Batch (2016), Amirpo... more In her two feature films A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014) and The Bad Batch (2016), Amirpour rearranges classic American genres as the Western and the Gothic movie, and she does it in a weirded fashion. Building upon long established and postmodern imagery alike, she creates new meaning by resignifying and hybridizing those proto-American traditions. How does the weird in her work correlate with her stance of becoming American through watching the Making of Michael Jackson’s Thriller documentary? This chapter takes Amirpour’s self-placement as a starting point to discuss her understanding of Americanness which is—as argued here—fundamentally tied to the weird in her to-date two full-length movies. Characterizing her first movie as an “Iranian vampire spaghetti western” and setting her second film in an outdoor prison across the Texas desert inhabited by followers of a grotesque cult, Amirpour creates the western landscape as a “thematic space” (Bal 2009) that acts through resignification and hybridization of long-established U.S.-American imagery. In this chapter, I argue that both films make use of the weird as a basic principle of Amirpour’s vision of America.
Anthropology of the Middle East, Volume 11, 2016
'Vampires, Veils and the Western Gaze – Gender Images and the Notion of Beauty from Qajar to Postrevolutionary Iran', in: Whiskin, Margaux/ Bagot, David (eds.): Iran and the West. Cultural Perceptions from the Sasanian Empire to the Islamic Republic, London: I.B. Tauris, 2018
Sehepunkte Forum Islamische Welten, 2018
"Music was one of the first official casualties in 1979" (3), Nahid Siamdoust marks the beginning... more "Music was one of the first official casualties in 1979" (3), Nahid Siamdoust marks the beginning of her book "Soundtrack of the Revolution: the Politics of Music in Iran". In this in-depth study, which is based on the author's doctoral dissertation, Siamdoust provides a broad historical and biographical account of modern Iran's musical scenes and the political circumstances surrounding, enabling and impeding them. The work is conceptualised as a political history of modern Iran, narrated through the lens of music.
For full review see http://www.sehepunkte.de/2018/04/31674.html
Abstract of paper given at the Interdisciplinary and International Conference: The American Weird... more Abstract of paper given at the Interdisciplinary and International Conference: The American Weird: Ecologies & Geographies 12-14 April 2018 at University of Göttingen
Since Safavīd rule over Iranian territories (from 1501 on) the ritual singing of Madh has been a ... more Since Safavīd rule over Iranian territories (from 1501 on) the ritual singing of Madh has been a popular variation of Shiite commemoration culture during Moharram. Along with Khomeini's anti-Shah mobilisation on tape, the distribution of Madh, Noheh and Rouzeh Khānī became technologised and applied the mythology of Imam Hossein's martyrdom at Karbalāʼ to contemporary political dissent. After the Iranian Revolution, the Maddāhī rituals moved from the private into the public space and became an important tool of war mobilisation for the "Culture of Holy Defence" (Farhang-e Defā-'e Moghaddas) against Iraq in the First Gulf War (1980 until 1988) as well as a means of modern nation-building for the newly established Islamic Republic.
In my presentation I will firstly trace the rise of the Maddāhān singers from their agitational functions for religious groups such as the Heyʾathā-ye Moʾtalefa-ye Eslāmī during the 1970s to their role in the Culture of Holy Defence – at home and at the front. Secondly, I will illustrate the ideological contribution of their performances and lyrics to the semantic shift of martyrdom as a concept of collective grievability (Butler 2009) for the mostaza'fïn, as graphically showcased in Morteza Āvīnī's war documentary 'The Chronicles of Victory' (Revāyat-e Fath).
Since the Safavid era, the ritual singing of Madh has been a popular alternation in Iranian relig... more Since the Safavid era, the ritual singing of Madh has been a popular alternation in Iranian religious culture. The elegiac songs about the martyrdom of Hoseyn and his companions in Karbala aim to induce emotionality in the audience: crying, breast-beating, ectasy. Only in the course of the 1978/79 revolution, the role of the Maddah as an agitator started to loom. In my presentation I will trace the rise of the Maddahan from their agitational functions for religious groups such as the Hey’ate Motalefeh during the 1970s, to their contributions to the “culture of holy defence” in the Iran/Iraq War and and their performances in propaganda films like the Revayate Fath Series until the culmination of their role as a major cultural pillar of Khamene’i’s post-revolutionary Islamic Republic.
Abstract of Conference Talk at the XIII Annual Conference of the Italian Society for Middle Easte... more Abstract of Conference Talk at the XIII Annual Conference of the Italian Society for Middle Eastern Studies (SeSaMO), University of Catania, Italy
17-19 March 2016
MIGRANTS: COMMUNITIES, BORDERS, MEMORIES, CONFLICTS
For the complete manuscript of the presentation see section PRESENTATIONS
by Maryam Aras, M. A., University of Cologne