Université Laval
Faculté des sciences sociales

Répertoire du personnel administratif et enseignant

Image de Professeure Nat Nesvaderani

Nat Nesvaderani

Département d’anthropologie

Associate Professor

418 656-2131, poste 409267

natalie.nesvaderani@ant.ulaval.ca

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Professeurs du Département Professeurs de la Faculté

I am Nat Nesvaderani (they/she). I am an Iranian-American anthropologist and media producer. I focus on migration and refugee studies, youth, affect and humanitarianism in Southwest Asia and North Africa (SWANA). I received my PhD from the Department of Anthropology at Cornell University with concentrations in Film & Video Studies and in Feminist, Gender & Sexuality Studies.

My research project titled “Documentary Refugee Regimes" is based on my fieldwork with NGOs for displaced youth and social documentary filmmakers in Iran. I examine how legal documents for refugees (such as residency permits, UNHCR identification cards) are intertwined with documentary films created about the lives of migrant young in Iran. Though ethnographic methods and critical film studies, I analyze how "documentary regimes" sometimes reinforce, and at other times resist fictions of the nation about belonging and exclusion.

Before beginning my doctoral studies, I served as a Fulbright scholar to provide legal advice to unaccompanied refugee children in Cairo, Egypt. This experience allowed me to better understand the legal frameworks that guide humanitarian care for migrant and refugee children.

Today we experience a political climate where the “single story” obscures more complex and nuanced understandings of people and places. This is particularly the case when it comes to Iran, Afghanistan, and the SWANA region. A more complete understanding of diverse social and political experiences can build bridges across borders. Through multimodal and community-based methods, my research aims to challenge dominant “single story” narratives about migrants and refugees.

To bring about change in representations, I am a founding member of two collectives: The EthnoCine  Collective for intersectional feminist ethnographic filmmaking, and CoMMPCT, the Collective for Multimodal Makers, Publishers, Collaborators and Teachers.

My work has been supported by the Newcombe Doctoral Fellowship for Research in Ethics, the US–Egypt Binational Fulbright Program, the Sage Diversity Fellowship, the Cornell Society for the Humanities, and the Cornell Fellowship for Community-Based Research.

At Université Laval, I collaborated with colleagues in the Anthropology Department to found the new Multimodal Anthropology Lab (LAM).

I am currently accepting news master's and doctoral students.

Research

Nesvaderani N. « Entre travail de terrain et limites invisibles : Sensibilités politiques et incertitudes chez les chercheur.euses en contextes répressifs ». Zilsel : Science, technique, societé. 2025/ n°15

Nesvaderani, Nat. “Multimodal Anthropology.” In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Anthropology. Ed. Mark Aldenderfer. New York: Oxford University Press. February 19, 2025.

Ethnocine Collective, “Visualizing Ethnography: Feminist Praxis in Anthropological Film.” Routledge Handbook to Feminist Anthropology, Routledge Press, 2025.

Nesvaderani, N., 2024, « Anthropologie multimodale », Anthropen.

Nesvaderani N. Navigating “Sensitive” States: How Surveillance Practices Affect Research Development between the United States and Iran. International Journal of Middle East Studies . 2023; 55(4):786-794.

Nesvaderani, N. “Embodying Place: Displaced Afghan Youth and Participatory Media Production in Iran” Visual Anthropology Review. 39 (2). Fall 2023.

(With Caroline Lenette) Participatory Action Research: A Theoretical and Critical Introduction. In Leavy, P. (Ed . ),  Popularizing Scholarly Research: Working with Nonacademic Stakeholders ,  Teams, and Communities . Oxford University Press, 2021.

Film Review: “Sonita.” States of Displacement: Middle Eastern Refugees, Internally Displaced Persons and Asylum Seekers in Global Contexts. Anthropology of the Middle East (16)1. Spring 2021.

(With Ethnocine Collective) “ Ethnocine: An Introduction ” in the Screening Room Series. Cultural Anthropology, Visual and New Media Review. July 2020.

(With Miasarah Lai) Film Review: “ Jaddoland .” Visual Anthropology Review. 36(2). Fall 2020.

Producer & host. “Ethnographic Documentary and Festival Interventions with Patricia Alvarez Astacio.” Bad Feminists Making Films Podcast , Episode 14 .

2018 Making Home 10 min. Participatory Multimodal Project. Co-Creator

2017 Beyond the Frame 12 min. Participatory Film Project. Co-Creator, Producer, Facilitator

2016 I Cut Off My Hair and Started Living my Queerest Self  16 min, Participatory Film Project. Director, Cinematographer, and Editor

2015 Entomos 6 min. Director, Editor, Producer. 

2014 Bronx Lives 66 min. Co-Producer, Co-Cinematographer

2013 The Society 9 min. Director, Cinematographer, Editor

Research Projects

Principal Investigator

Anthropology of Migration and Media: A study of journalists covering adult migrants and refugees in Québec. FRQ–Support for New Academics. 2025 – 2028

Anthropology of Migration and Media: A comparative study of journalists reporting on refugee children in Canada and the SWANA region. SSHRC - Insight Development Grant. 2024 - 2026

Grant for the development of the project “Multimodal Anthropology Laboratory.” Faculty of Social Sciences, Université Laval. 2023 - 2025

Participatory methods with young migrants in Iran. Start-up Fund--Faculty of Social Sciences, Université Laval. 2022 - 2024

Co-Investigator

Decolonizing Participatory Artistic Practices through a Diasporic Epistemological and Methodological Framework. SSHRC - Insight Development Grant. (PI: Roméo Gongora) 2025–2027

Understanding Governance and the Experience of Displacement: Framing Interdisciplinary, Critical, and Creative Approaches. FRQ—support for research teams. (PI: Megan Bradley) 2025 - 2029

Voices of Anger and Hope: Virtual and ethnographic narrative strategies of anger and hope adopted by young Muslim women and men in Canada, Europe, and the Maghreb. SSHRC—Partnership Grants. (PI: Abdelwahed Mekki-Berrada.)  2024 - 2031

Disinformation as a Signal: A social sciences approach applied to COVID-19 vaccination. FRQSC—Disinformation / Team Project. (PI: Ève Dubé).  2023 - 2025

Courses

Université Laval

ANT-7002 Anthropologie multimodale

ANT-2309 Anthropologie visuelle

ANT-1010 Picturing Iran

Cornell University

ANTHR-1101 Decolonizing “the Gaze” in Documentary Cinema

FGSS-1117 Feminist Praxis, Representation, and Migration

ANTHR-1101 Feminist Anthropology and the Politics of Representation

FGSS-2220 Drugs and Social Justice

Education

Ph.D., Cornell University, 2021

M.A., Cornell University, 2016

B.A., University of California San Diego, 2011

Research interests

  • Anthropologie des médias
  • Théories féministes
  • Genres et sexualités
  • Études de migration

Actualités