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Zahra Abedi

Zahra Abedi

Zahra Abedi

Ph.D. Candidate in Comparative Studies & Folklore, Teaching Associate
She/her/hers

abedi.9@osu.edu

1775 S. College Rd
Columbus OH, 43210

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Office Hours

Mondays 11:30-12:30
Wednesdays 11:30-12:30
and by appointment

Areas of Expertise

  • Ethnography
  • Archival Politics and Theory
  • Digital Folklore and Vernacular Religion
  • Ritual and Performance

Education

  • Western Kentucky University, Folk Studies, Master of Arts, May 2020
  • Tarbiat Modares University, Criminal law and Criminology, Master, 2009
  • Shiraz University, Law, B.L., 2006

Zahra Abedinezhad is a Ph.D. candidate in Comparative Studies at The Ohio State University, where she also pursues a Graduate Interdisciplinary Specialization in Folklore. Her research combines archival work, autoethnography, and digital ethnography to examine how ritual practices circulate in online environments and how these digital transformations foster new cultures of resistance. 

She teaches Introduction to Folklore at Ohio State and takes a collaborative, interdisciplinary approach to teaching. By designing interactive class activities and incorporating diverse materials—such as films, book chapters, and scholarly articles from disciplines including religion, history, and literature—she introduces students to folklore as a dynamic and integrative field of study.

 During the summer of 2023, she served as a Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives Intern at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., where she contributed to projects connecting archival materials to contemporary cultural practice.

Selected Awards and Fellowships

  • Office of Distance Education Award, College of Arts and Sciences, The Ohio State University, for designing Introduction to Folklore (Online) under the Race, Ethnicity, and Gender Diversity category of the General Education curriculum, April 2024.
  • The Elliott Oring Student Travel Stipend, Western States Folklore Society, April 2024.
  • The Patrick B. Mullen Graduate Prize for Best Graduate Student Paper, Center for Folklore Studies, The Ohio State University, April 2023.
  • Distinguished University Fellowship, The Ohio State University, 2020–2021 and 2025.
  • Outstanding Graduate Student Award, Potter College of Arts & Letters, Western Kentucky University, 2019–2020.
  • Graduate Student Research Grant, Western Kentucky University, “Experiences of Iranian Immigrant Women Living in the U.S.,” April–November 2019.
  • Elaine J. Lawless Travel Award, Folk Belief and Religious Folklife Section, for paper “Resistance and Reconciliation in the Shrine: The Role of Imamzadeh in the Reformulation of Iranian Vernacular Shiite Communities,” American Folklore Society, April 2019.
  • Scholarship for Master’s Program, Iranian Scholarship Foundation, January 2019–January 2020.