Research Interests & Experience

My area of research and work is interdisciplinary social sciences and can be classified into the following fields:

International Relations & Political Science

I completed my postgraduate education in multidisciplinary country studies, with a focus on the United Kingdom at MSc and the United States at PhD levels. Although British and American studies traditionally connote the study of literature, culture, geography, and history of the respective country, British Studies and American Studies pogroms at the Faculty of World Studies of University of Tehran, chiefly focused on the country’s politics, history, society, media, foreign policy, and its relations with Iran.

Through these programs, I acquired a broad understanding of British and American political structure analytically and systematically, and most importantly the strategy of country studies and strategic country studies.

The focus of my studies and research is limited to Anglo-Iranian relations, Iran-US relations, and Brexit.

Islamophobia & Terrorism

I conducted a series of studies on different aspects of terrorism (including its typology, phenomenology, psychology, religious terrorism, and how the media is used as a weapon for radicalization, recruiting, or a propaganda channel to prompt terrorist ideas or alienate parts of the society) for the Center for Strategic Research in 2014 and 2015. These studies resulted in a number of whitepapers for policymakers, and a couple of conference presentations.

I also conducted studies on Islamophobia (initially for my graduate classes in British Cultural Studies and later for the Center for Strategic Research). These studies focused on Islamophobia and the representation of Muslims in the British media, and Islamophobia in Muslim societies.

I no longer work in this area, and any future publication is a result of my previously conducted research.

Social & Behavioral Sciences

Considering that social science is the study that deals with human behavior in its social and cultural aspects, all my research studies fall within interdisciplinary social sciences.

The value of inter- and multidisciplinary research has risen in recent years, and I am under the impression that interdisciplinary social sciences provide a holistic approach that is essential to synthesize the knowledge for examining and analyzing complex issues and problems facing the social world.

To avoid any redundancies the list below merely addresses my work from the sociological aspect of social sciences.

Media & Technology

Information technology is driving world modernization and has empowered different industries. Technology, and information technology to be specific, has profound impacts on academia from the digitization of scholarly communications and the open access movement, to the evolution of scientometrics and how data is accessed, analyzed, assimilated, and redistributed.

By the same token, digital technology has significantly affected the mediums of communication, how media is consumed, and has changed the media landscape. Mass media and the new media play a crucial role in shaping people’s preferences, particularly when it comes to political and social matters.

With a background in IT, I was invited to join the Cyberspace Research Policy Center as a researcher and collaborate with UNESCO Chair as an executive board member in Jan 2017.

I organized and instructed various workshops on open science, the use of artificial intelligence in peer review, and how academicians should utilize cyberspace for science communication.

I collaborate with UNESCO, UNESCO Media and Information Literacy Alliance, and other stakeholders to promote media and information literacy to combat disinformation, nurture trust, enhance social cohesion, improve the quality of life, and achieve sustainable development goals.

In addition, I work on the media discourse and political discourse of the media.

Language, Literature, and Communications

My first bachelor in Business IT and Foundation in Computer Science & Management made me interested in business and organizational communication. While I was studying for my second bachelor’s degree in Translation Studies, I was prompted to further evaluate interpersonal communication from a sociolinguistic perspective. I pursued my interest in communication science in my postgraduate studies as well. My master’s degree in British Studies, which is a multidisciplinary country study, paved the way for further scrutiny of communication in political science and media.

It is worth noting that due to my personal interest in classic literature and poetry; in addition to writing some poems myself, I took an interest in poetry translation.

I no longer work in this area and my current interest in the field is part of my work related to media discourse (see: Media & Technology section), and my advocacy for enhancing communication in healthcare.

Healthcare & Medical Sociology

My initial interest in medical sciences pertains to when my mother was diagnosed with cancer. I perceived what irritated her, and many patients like her, the most were the flawed scheduled appointments, inadequate visit times, lack of empathy from the healthcare professionals, inappropriate patient-healthcare provider communication, unmannerly secretaries, and lack of patient-centered decision-making. Since I had already scrutinized and studied communication from a wide range of disciplines, the outlined issues promoted me to assess communication in healthcare as well.

This prompted me to join the Academy of Communication in Healthcare (at the time the American Academy on Communication in Healthcare) in 2015 and their Peer Coaching Special Interest Group. Subsequently, I founded the International Association of Communication in Healthcare as a part of Universal Scientific Education and Research Network at Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS) in 2016.

I actively advocate for and promote enhancing communication in healthcare, shared decision-making, and patient rights. As a patient advocate, I participated in various related events organized by the American Medical Association, the American Society of Clinical Oncology, and the European Society for Medical Oncology.

In addition, I actively advocate and optimize the rehabilitation of people with spinal cord injury and breast cancer, and have collaborated with the American Academy of Communication and in Healthcare and the Brain & Spinal Cord Injury Research Center at TUMS. Moreover, I volunteered as a link worker providing social prescribing, and addressing the social determinants of health for these patients to enhance their quality of life and care.

I obtained numerous certifications and continuing professional education credits on healthcare issued by the American Medical Association, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Stanford Medicine, Harvard Medical School, University of Washington, University at Minnesota, Global Health Training Centre, American Society of Clinical Oncology, European School of Oncology, Quebec Ministry of Health and Social Services, and World Health Organization among others.

Considering this to be my social responsibility, in addition to my advocacy work and research, I collaborate with academic medical journals as a methodology reviewer.