nazli.akhtari@uwaterloo.ca
519-888-4567 x41527
Location: ML 119C
Nazli Akhtari is an Assistant Professor of Theatre and Performance Studies at the University of Waterloo. Her research broadly engages questions of critical historiography and minoritarian archives within the context of diaspora and empire. She is currently at work on two projects. The first is a book manuscript in progress on archival memory and image-making practices in the global Iranian diaspora. The second project funded by the SSHRC Insight Development Grant (2023-2025) considers the institutional inclusion of diasporic and minoritarian artistic practices in relation to the settler colonial project of empire across turtle island.
Nazli is the 2024 recipient of the Yasuo Sakakibara Prize for the best paper presented by an international scholar at the annual meeting of the American Studies Association. She is the past recipient of numerous awards including a curational residency at the Banff International Curational Institute (2024), a Research Fellowship from the American Society for Theatre Research (2021) and an honorary mention for the Richard Plant Award for best article in English on a topic in Canadian theatre and performance studies (2022) among others.
Education:
Ph.D., University of Toronto, 2021
B.F.A., Simon Fraser University, 2012
Recent publications:
“Pulsating Abundance.” PUBLIC 71 (Against Oblivion Community Archives, Building Alliances), 104–111, 2025.
“A Visceral and Temporal Remix: Performing Reza Abdoh’s Archives.” Theatre Journal 76(2) 197-222, 2024.
“We Think the — Cat Got It” Reflections on Cats Performing as Historical Witnesses.” Theater (New Haven) 53(3), 4-21, 2023.
“Remixing to Queer the Archives of Diaspora: Qajar Photography and the Persian Carpet.” Camera Obscura: Feminism, Culture, and Media Studies 37 (111), 1-29, 2022.
“Diaspora Walks: Small Lessons in Unlearning.” Performance Matters 7 (1-2), 2021
“Performance as Feminist Historiography: A Conversation with Gita Hashemi on Zandokht Shirazi and Early Radical Feminism in Iran.” Journal of Middle East Women's Studies 17 (2): 277–286, 2021.