Pardis Mahdavi at TEDxURI 2023
The Creative Spark that Ignited a Revolution
What would creativity look like if it was part of the resistance? In Iran today, we are seeing how a series of creative sparks have ignited a revolution that is unfolding in real time on the streets of Iran. For months, the world has been watching with bated breath as the murder of a young woman at the hands of the morality police spurred an outpouring of resistance on the streets of Iran, with dissenters communicating their politics through song, art, poetry, and fashion, and in many cases, being punished for it. Hundreds have died in the ongoing protests whose slogan “women, life, freedom” has caught fire worldwide. And as their defiant and creative activism continues, the world watches as creativity sparks a revolution to unseat one of the world’s most elusive regimes.
Pardis Mahdavi
Pardis Mahdavi, PhD is the Provost and Executive Vice President at the University of Montana. Previously, she was Professor and Dean of Social Sciences at Arizona State University. Her research interests include gendered labor, human trafficking, migration, human rights, and public health in the context of changing global and political structures.
She has published six single authored books and two edited volumes in addition to numerous journal and news articles. She is a lifetime member of the Council on Foreign Relations and has been a fellow at the Social Sciences Research Council, the American Council on Learned Societies, Google Ideas, and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.