This work­shop is a reflec­tion of my jour­ney as a female Iran­ian stu­dent in Visual Anthro­pol­o­gy, based on the research project that I con­duct­ed during my bach­e­lor stud­ies at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Tehran.   

I inves­ti­gat­ed on the brief and for­got­ten his­to­ry of the first audio-visual ethnog­ra­phy in Iran. The research is based on the life and work of Nader Afshar-Naderi, a pro­fes­sor of Anthro­pol­o­gy at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Tehran who was the first Iran­ian Anthro­pol­o­gist who made anthro­po­log­i­cal­ly informed films and how to use audio-visual mate­ri­als in Anthro­po­log­i­cal stud­ies during the 1960s and 70s. He ini­ti­at­ed a col­lo­qui­um for teach­ing anthro­pol­o­gy stu­dents how to com­bine audio­vi­su­al mate­ri­als with ethno­graph­ic knowl­edge. 

His trail­blaz­ing method was iso­lat­ed and mar­gin­al­ized after the Islam­ic rev­o­lu­tion of 1979. As the main part of this research is shaped around look­ing for archives, dream­ing about archives, and fol­low­ing them, in this work­shop I would like to focus on archival silence and acces­si­bil­i­ty of knowl­edge. My film UNDER THE SHADOW OF THE OAK TREE (2022) is about this brief his­to­ry. It will be screened and dis­cussed within this session. 

Sadaf Biglari is an Iran­ian Visual Anthro­pol­o­gy stu­dent based in Mün­ster, Ger­many. Prior to her cur­rent stud­ies, she received a bachelor’s degree in Cul­tur­al Anthro­pol­o­gy from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Tehran. UNDER THE SHADOW OF THE OAK TREE (2022) is her first stu­dent film. The research itself was the start­ing point of her jour­ney into audio-visual Anthro­pol­o­gy. 

The Work­shop will be held in English.