Education
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2024–Present – PhD Candidate, Political Science – York University
2017–2021 – PhD, Comparative Literature, emphasis in Critical Theory – UC Irvine
2015–2017 – MA, Comparative Literature – UC Irvine
2012–2013 – MA, Literatures of Modernity – Toronto Metropolitan University
2004–2009 – BASc, Mechanical Engineering – University of Waterloo

Teaching Experience
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Course Director
2023–2024 – Artificial Intelligence and Its Strategic Discontents – Faculty of Arts and Science, University of Toronto
2015–2020 – American Foreign Policy Through the Domestic Lens, 1945–Present – Humanities, UC Irvine

Teaching Assistant
2026–Present – Introduction to Politics – Department of Politics, York University
2024–2026 – Introduction to Social Economy – Department of Social Science, York University
2014–2015 – Action, Spectacle – Cinema Studies Institute, U of T
2012–2013 – Nature of Narrative I & II – Literatures of Modernity, TMU

Research Experience
–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––2025–2026 – Research assistant to Professor Jennifer Pybus – Department of Politics, York University
2017–2018 – Research assistant to Professor Gayatri Spivak – Critical Theory Institute, UC Irvine
2016–2017 – Research assistant to Professor Victoria Birgani – Women and Gender Studies, U of T
2012–2013 – Research assistant to Professor Monique Tschofen – Communication and Culture, TMU

Academic, Policy, and Public Writing
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Academic
2026 – Towards a Leftist Artificial Intelligence for Geopolitical Analysis – chapter in El Morr et al., eds., AI for a Just World: Power, Liberation, and the People Left Behind, 226–234
2025 – Toward a Folklore of the Left – Cultural Critique 127(1), 138–176
2022 – Farewell, Rojava: The Philosophical Case for Strategic Thinking as a Democratic Necessity – chapter in D. J. Smith, ed., Rethinking Democracy in Kurdistan – special issue of Philosophy, World, Democracy

Policy
2026 – Canada Needs a Strategy for the AI Deployment Phase – Open Canada (Canadian International Council)
2025 – The Third Option: A Canada–EU–UK Coalition for a Balanced Digital World Order – Global Affairs Canada

Public
2024 – The Impact of the Belt and Road Initiative on Iranian, Iraqi, and Syrian Kurds – Radio Zamaneh (in Persian)
2024 – The Impact of the Belt and Road Initiative and the Iran and Pakistan Conflict – Radio Zamaneh (in Persian)
2021 – On the Authoritarian Turn of Global Capital and Its Contradictions in the USA – Socialist Project
2020 – A Mutating Neoliberalism, Socialist Transitions, and Their Foreign Policies – Hampton Institute
2020 – Rojava after Rojava – ROAR
2019 – Revolution and Counterrevolution in Rojava – Socialist Project
2019 – Rojava Is Under Existential Threat – Jacobin (with R. Burç)
2018 – The Kurds, Crags and Kalashnikovs – rabble.ca
2018 – The Iran Protests: A Third Path to Political Change? – Socialist Project (with B. Amini)
2017 – Against Personality Cult-Oriented Political Analysis – The Intellectual (in Persian)
2015 – Syria: The Production and Management of Crisis Discourse – Radio Zamaneh (in Persian)

Human Rights
2015 – Best Defence Practices for LGBT Defendants in Iranian Courts – IGLHRC (with F. Haerinejad)
2014 – Iranian Queer Watch – Iranian Railroad for Queer Refugees (with H. Moghtaderi)

Encyclopedic
2015 – Carl T. Dreyer – entry in S. Ross, ed., Routledge Encyclopedia of Modernism
2015 – Elia Kazan – entry in S. Ross, ed., Routledge Encyclopedia of Modernism
2015 – Stanley Kubrick – entry in S. Ross, ed., Routledge Encyclopedia of Modernism
2015 – Andrei Tarkovsky – entry in S. Ross, ed., Routledge Encyclopedia of Modernism
2015 – Kenneth Anger’s “Fireworks” – entry in S. Ross, ed., Routledge Encyclopedia of Modernism

Film & Theatre Reviews
2018 – Asghar Farhadi’s “Grey” Cinema – Radio Zamaneh (in Persian)
2015 – Bodies, Breath, and Borders: Reflections on Soheil Parsa’s Theatre – réflexion(s)
2014 – Forgiveness: A Theatrical Poem – Wyrd Stage, Weird Canada
2013 –Tim Luscombe’s PIG – Wyrd Stage, Weird Canada

Literary
2011 – Cactus – in J. du Pré, ed., Leodegraunce flash fiction anthology – Leodegraunce

Workshops, Panels, & Conference Presentations
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2026 – The Political Economy of the Open Source of AI – King’s College London
2025 – International Policy Ideas Challenge Winners Mentorship Workshop – Balsillie School of International Affairs
2019 – Return to the New Commons with Étienne Balibar – The Institute for Social Inquiry, The New School
2018 – Theory and Critical Algorithmic Studies – Humanities Research Institute, UC Irvine
2013 – The Dickens Universe – UC Santa Cruz

Panels & Presentations
2026 – Canada’s Compute Topography and the Technical Limits of Digital Sovereignty Under US Techno-hegemony – 4S
2026 – Locating Sovereignty: Canada’s Data-Centre Surge and AI Infrastructure Dependence – Royal Geographical Society
2025 – A Canada-EU-UK Coalition for a Balanced Digital World Order – Global Affairs Canada
2025 – Toward a Leftist Artificial Intelligence – Equity and Artificial Intelligence Symposium – York University
2025 – On the Absence of a Radical Philosophy of Mediation in Arendt – U of Verona
2025 – Rival Sovereignties: AI, Labour, and the Sino-American Contest for Cyber Hegemony – University of Naples
2023 – Returning to the Politico-strategic Question in Aesthetics – SOAS
2021 – The Kurdish Freedom Movement in Times of Global Capitalism – The 8th South-South Forum on Sustainability
2020 – IRI’s Neoliberal Project amid Iran’s Transition to the Global Markets – Concordia University
2019 – Iranian Neoliberalism – Zamaneh Webinars
2019 – Critical Reflections on Survival, Endurance and Strategy in Rojava – Panteion University of Athens
2018 – The Poetics and Politics of Translation in Shamloo, Lorca, and Bacon – Iranian Studies, UC Irvine
2018 – Emancipatory Transitions in Kurdistan and The Prospect of a Radical Democratic Future – UQAM
2017 – Technic and Realpolitik – GCAS
2017 – The Unpredictable Trump – University of Alberta
2015 – Sensory Deprivation and Surviving Prison in Iran – U of T
2014 – To Aletheia Belongs the East and The West – U of T

Grants, Fellowships, & Awards
–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––2025–2027 – Ontario Graduate Scholarship
2025 – International Policy Ideas Challenge – Global Affairs Canada
2015–2019 – SSHRC and CGS Doctoral Fellowships
2019–2020 – Dean’s Humanities Fellowship – UC Irvine
2016 – The Jordan Center for Iranian Studies Research Grant – UC Irvine
2013 – Student of the Year Award for Academic Excellence – English Department, TMU

Applied AI Experience
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AI Deployment
2024–Present – AI-pedagogy developer – York University

AI Developer
2026–Present – Independent AI development project centred on training a Gramscian LLM for advanced geopolitical analysis

Other Professional Experience
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Editorial
2016–2019 – English Editor – The Rojava Strategy

Organising
2018–2019 – Union Organiser, Trainer and Recruiter – UAW Local 2865

Researcher & Translator
2013–2014 – Iran Human Rights Documentation Centre – London, UK
2008–2010 – Freedom House, Gozaar Project – Washington, DC, USA

Engineering
2011–2012 – Product Development and Quality Engineer – Teknion – Toronto
2009–2010 – Project Engineer and Quality Control Specialist – Amico Accessories – Richmond Hill