Kristin Soraya Batmanghelichi

Kristin Soraya Batmanghelichi is a Professor in Middle East Studies at the Department of Culture Studies and Oriental Languages (IKOS), Faculty of Humanities, University of Oslo. She is a feminist scholar with a PhD from Columbia University and has held academic positions at Leiden University, Columbia University, and Princeton University. Her research focuses on gender, sexuality, cyberactivism, and political Islam in Iran and the broader Middle East.

• PhD in Iranian Studies, Columbia University (2013)
• MA in Human Rights and MA in Middle Eastern Studies, Columbia University (2004, 2007)
• Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Institute of Religion, Culture and Public Life (IRCPL), Columbia University (2016–2017)
• Visiting Lecturer, Leiden University (2014–2016)

Her research interests include feminist theory, postcolonial studies, cyberactivism, women's movements, and the politics of class, sex, and race in the Middle East. She explores how gendered public spaces and digital platforms shape resistance and identity in Iran. Her work bridges activism and academia, particularly through feminist engagements with digital culture and diasporic politics.

Her recent publications and monograph Revolutionary Bodies: Technologies of Gender, Sex, and Self in Contemporary Iran (2021) examine the intersections of technology, gender, and selfhood in Iran. Articles span topics such as cyberfeminism, government morality, and feminist challenges on social media, reflecting a strong focus on digital publics and feminist epistemology in the Iranian context.

Scientific Awards and Fellowships:

• Independent Research Fund Denmark (2023–2026), Co-PI
• President's Global Innovation Fund, Columbia University (2017)
• Whiting Foundation Dissertation Fellowship (2011–2012)
• Columbia University Jackson Fellowship (2008–09)
• Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship (2006)
• Multiple research and travel fellowships from Columbia University and the Houtan Foundation

She has supervised master’s theses and taught courses such as Iran in the World, Gender & Revolutions, and Fieldwork in the Middle East. She is Co-PI on a major Danish-funded project on diasporic Iranian politics and digital publics (2023–2026). She has co-organized international conference series on populism and pluralism across Amman, Tunis, Paris, and New York.

She is an original member of the Theory of the Margins Collective in Oslo and founder of the Digging Collective, both of which support critical and interdisciplinary feminist scholarship.