Personal Information
Killam Scholar 2023
Vanier Scholar 2024 University of Alberta
Department of Anthropology
Tory Marshal Building; 14-22
Edmonton, Alberta.
Educational Information:
Ph.D. Student of Anthropology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada
The Tentative Thesis Title: The Agency of Dead Bodies in Contemporary Iran
Supervisor: Marko Zivkovic
GPA: 3.9
Research Funding History
2024/9 -2027/9 SSHRC Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship (Ranked 1 among 193 applicants) 2023-24 Bryan Gruhn Research Award
2023/9 – 2025/9 Killam Trusts, Izaak Walton Killam Memorial Scholarship Awards
2023/9 – 2024/5 The University of Alberta, The Middle East and Islamic Studies, State of Kuwait
Doctoral Award in Islamic Studies
2023/9 – 2024/5 Killam Trusts, Killam Differential Fees Award— Total Funding
2023/11 – 2023/11 Middle East Studies Association (MESA), MESA Student Travel Grant
2022/10 – 2022/10 Canadian Federation of University Women Edmonton (CFUW)
Publications
Mehrabi, Tara and Hajar Ghorbani Forthcoming “Killable Bodies and Necrovalue in times of COVID: An Ethnography of Death in Iran through A Feminist-Queer Lens”, in Queer Death Studies Handbook, Nina Lykke, Marietta Radomska, and Tara Mehrabi (Eds.), New York and London: Routledge.
Arabestani, Mehradad, Jabbar Rahmani, Zohreh Anvari and Hajar Ghorbani Forthcoming Mourning Prevented during the Pandemic: Corona Virus: Lived Experience and Preventive Strategies, Tehran: Iranian Anthropological Association Publication.
Ghorbani, Hajar (Ed.) 2021a Social Studies of Death: Death in Iranian Culture and Society, Tehran: Anthropology.
Ghorbani, Hajar 2021b “We Are Not Invisible: Death is My Profession and Job”, Episode 4,Shiva Alinaghian (Producer), Mardom Negar Radio: The Field of Ordinary People (Host), https://shenoto.com/album/45534
Bayatrizi, Zohreh, Hajar Ghorbani and Reza Taslimitehrani 2021c “Risk, Mourning, Politics: Toward a Transnational Critical Conception of Grief for COVID-19 Deaths in Iran”, Current Sociology, Vol 69(4): 512-528.
Bayatrizi, Zohreh and Hajar Ghorbani 2019 “The Bureaucratic Professionalization of funeral Rites in Tehran’s Behesht-e Zahra Cemetery” in Death across Cultures: Death and Dying in Non-Western Cultures, Helaine Selin Robert M. Rakoff (Eds.): 103-118, Amsterdam: Springer.
Rahmani, Jabbar and Hajar Ghorbani 2017 “Burial as a Bureaucratic Phenomenon: Death Rituals in Tehran’s Behesht-e-Zahra Cemetery”, Quarterly of Social Studies and Research in Iran, Vol 6(3): 409-430.
Rahmani, Jabbar and Hajar Ghorbani 2015 “The Cultural Semiotics of Visual Signs on Gravestones Combs in Takht-e Fulad Cemetery”, Quarterly of People and Culture, No1: 189-215.
International Conferences
2022 Keynote Speaker, “The Social Life of Death Institutions in Iran”, CDAS Conference 2022, June 10th, University of Bath, Bath, England.
2021a “Knowledge Production in Iranian Cemeteries: Theoretical and Practical Considerations in the ‘field’,” The 15th International Conference on the Social Context of Death, Dying and Disposal: Diversity and Decolonization, The Association for the Study of Death and Society (ASDS) and Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, England.
2021b “Reverberation of Death: Music and Burial Rituals in the Behesht-e Zahra Cemetery of Tehran, Iran”, Music, Mortality, and Ritual Symposium, the Centre for Death and Life Studies, Durham University, Durham, UK.
2018 “The Politics of Death in Contemporary Iran: Martyr, Martyrdom and Nation-state”, The Politics of Death, CDAS (Center for Death and Society) Conference: University of Bath, Bath, England.
2017 “The Policy of Death and Urban Art in Iran: A Martyrdom Street Performance in Tehran”, GIS Congress Middle East and Muslim worlds, Paris, France.
2015 “From the Grave to the Holy Shrine; the Processes of the Development of a Holy Shrine; Dar- e salaam of Shiraz Cemetery,” Anthropology Symposium on Death and Life; Anthropology Institute of Cultural Heritage and Tourism Research Institute, Tehran, Iran.
2013a “Cultural Semiotics of Visual Signs of Gravestones,” CULTIST 13 Cultural History Conference, Istanbul, Turkey.
2013b “Semiotic Representation of the Cultural-political Relations Between Iran and India Through Miniatures”. Poster presentation in The First International SEMINAR of Indo- Iranian Heritage, Ghom, Iran.
Translations from English to Persian
C.G.M. Robben, Antonius
Forthcoming Death, Mourning, and Burial: A Cross-Cultural Reader, translated to Persian by Hajar Ghorbani, Tehran: The Institute for Research of Culture, Art and Communication publication.
Walter, Tony
2017 Death and Modernity[1], translated to Persian by Hajar Ghorbani, Tehran: Institute for Research of Culture, Art and Communication publication.
Cassell, Dana K
2014 The Encyclopedia of Death and Dying, translated to Persian by Hajar Ghorbani, www.anthropologyandculture.com (the Iranian Institute of Anthropology and Culture, IIAC).
Events and workshops
2019-2020 Head of “A New Narrative Academic” Meetings, Takht-e FuladCemetery, Isfahan, Iran. (The project included monthly meetings about death and dying in Isfahan city).
2019 Head of “Coping of Culture with Death Phenomenon” Academic Meetings, Behesht-e Zahra Cemetery Research Institute, Tehran, Iran.
2019 Head of “Cemetery and its Importance in Urban Societies” Academic Meetings, Behesht-e Zahra Cemetery Research institute, Tehran, Iran.
2019 Speaker at “Social Studies of Death in Iran”, Institute for Research of Culture, Art and Communication, Tehran, Iran.
2018 Head of “Death and its Rituals in the Modern Societies” Academic Meetings, Behesht-e Zahra Cemetery Research Institute, Tehran, Iran.
2018 Speaker at “An Introduction to Anthropology of Death“, Anthropology Department, Faculty of Social Science, University of Tehran. Tehran, Iran.
2017 Speaker at “Effects of Death Phenomenon in Contemporary Iran,” Iranian Institute of Anthropology and Culture, Tehran, Iran.
2017 Speaker at “Death Studies and its Approaches,“ Workshop held by Rouhesh-Mehr Art and Culture Institute, Isfahan, Iran.
2016 Speaker at “Historical Cemeteries and Cultural Urban Areas”, Shiraz municipality, Shiraz, Iran.
Volunteer Contributions
2022 Graphic Designer for “From Tehran to Crete: A Middle Eastern Music Journey” Concert, performed by MENAME (Middle Eastern and African Music Ensemble), Music Department, University of Alberta.
2014-2020 A volunteer member of Cultural History of Modern Iran, Tehran.
2012-2020 A volunteer member of the Institute of Anthropology and Culture and the chief editor of “Death and Disaster” section on www.anthroplogyandculture.com.
2009-2013 A member of Mehr Charity Association, Isfahan University of Art, Isfahan, Iran.
Memberships
2023-Present
Fellowship Student and Member of Royal Anthropological Institute; London, UK.
2023- Present
Member of Middle East Studies Association of North America, Tuscan, US.
2022- Present
Member of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, Edmonton, Canada.
2020- Present
Member of the Association for the Study of Death and Society, ASDS, London, England.
2017-Present
Member of the Centre for Death and Society, Bath, England.
2009-2013
Member of the Mehr Charity, Isfahan, Iran.
2006-2009
Member of the Single Parents Association of Shiraz, Shiraz, Iran.
Languages
Persian: Native
English: Advanced
Arabic: Intermediate
[1] This volume’s chapters are chosen by the translator from Tony Walter’s already published articles. Thus, there is no book with this title in English. Professor Tony Walter wrote a preface for this book.