Education
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PhD student in Political Science – Department of Politics, York University, 2024-present – Dissertation: The Strategic Cultures of Cybernetic Sovereignty in the Sino-American AI Rivalry

PhD in Comparative Literature, emphasis in Critical Theory – Department of Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2017-21 – Dissertation: Retracing the Strategic Cultures of Capital from English Realism to the Kurdish Freedom Movement

MA in Comparative Literature – Department of Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2015–2017

MA in Literatures of Modernity – Department of English, Toronto Metropolitan University, 2012–2013

BASc in Mechanical Engineering – Department of Engineering, University of Waterloo, 2004–2009

 

Research Experience
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Research Assistant to Professor Jennifer Pybus – Department of Politics, York U, 2025–present – Project: AI-enabled privacy regimes, SDK tracking, and the political economy of digital platforms

Research Assistant to Professor Gayatri Spivak – Critical Theory Institute, UC Irvine, 2017

Research Assistant to Professor Victoria Birgani – Women and Gender Studies, U of T, 2016–2017

Research Assistant to Professor Eric Cazdyn – Centre for Comparative Literature, U of T, 2014–2015

Research Assistant to Professor Monique Tschofen – Communication and Culture, TMU, 2012–2013

 

Teaching Experience
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Course Director
Artificial Intelligence and Its Strategic Discontents – Faculty of Arts and Science, U of T, 2023–2024 – Theme: The critical theory and political economy of machine learning as a contested socio-technical infrastructure

American Foreign Policy Through the Domestic Lens, 1945–Present – Humanities, UC Irvine, 2016–2020

Representations of Crisis in Contemporary America – Humanities, UC Irvine, 2015–2016

Teaching Assistant
Introduction to Social Economy – Social Science, York University, 2024–present – Role: Supporting course director by implementing AI-enabled pedagogy and introducing students to the strategic impact of AI on the social economy

Action, Spectacle – Cinema Studies Institute, U of T, 2014–2015

Nature of Narrative I & II – Literatures of Modernity, TMU, 2012–2013

 

Conference Papers, Panels and Workshops
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––Workshops and Masterclasses
International Policy Ideas Challenge Mentorship Workshop – Global Affairs Canada & Balsillie School of International Affairs, 2025 – Project: A Canada-EU-UK Coalition for a Balanced Digital World Order

Return to the New Commons with Étienne Balibar – The Institute for Social Inquiry, The New School, 2019

Theory and Critical Algorithmic Studies – Humanities Research Institute, UC Irvine, 2018

The Dickens Universe – UC Santa Cruz, 2013

Panels
Returning to the Politico-strategic Question in Aesthetics – Oppression, Exploitation and Struggle in the Time of Monsters, SOAS, 2023

The Kurdish Freedom Movement and Hope in Times of Global Capitalism – The Politics of Hope, the 8th South-South Forum on Sustainability, 2021

IRI’s Neoliberal Project amid Iran’s Transition to the Global Markets – Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling, Concordia U, 2020

Critical Reflections on Survival, Endurance and Strategy in Rojava – Rethinking Crisis, Resistance and Strategy, Panteion University of Athens, 2019

The Poetics and Politics of Translation in Shamloo, Lorca, and Bacon – Iranian Studies, UC Irvine, 2018

Paper Presentations
Rival Sovereignties: AI, Labour, and the Sino-American Contest for Cyber Hegemony – Starting Over: Mass Politics and the Future of the Left Conference, U of Naples, 2025

To be Less than an Actor; More than a Sufferer: On the Absence of a Radical Philosophy of Mediation in Arendt – Arendtian Counciliarism: Visions & Care for Democracy, Hannah Arendt Center for Political Studies, U of Verona, 2025

Emancipatory Transitions in Kurdistan and The Prospect of a Radical Democratic Future – Historical Materialism: The Great Transition, UQAM, 2018

Technic and Realpolitik – Anomalies, Aberrations, and Open Futures, GCAS, 2017

The Unpredictable Trump – Around the World, U of Alberta, 2017

The Coffins: Sensory Deprivation and Surviving Prison in Iran – Survival, U of T, 2015

To Aletheia Belongs the East and The West – Repetition: with a Difference, U of T, 2014

 

Select Awards and Grants
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International Policy Ideas Challenge – Global Affairs Canada, 2025 

Ontario Graduate Scholarship – York University, 2025–2026

Dean’s Humanities Fellowship – UC Irvine, 2019–2020 

SSHRC and CGS Fellowships – Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, 2015-19

The Jordan Center for Iranian Studies Research Grant – UC Irvine, 2016 

Student of the Year Award for Academic Excellence – English Department, TMU, 2013 

 

Publications
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––Refereed Articles
Oveisy, F. (2025). Toward a folklore of the left: Retracting the strategic models of fiction from English realism to streaming television. Cultural Critique, 127(1), 138–176.

Refereed Book Chapter
Oveisy, F. [forthcoming]. Toward a leftist artificial intelligence for geopolitical analysis: Addressing conceptual and technical gaps in the development of radically equitable artificial agents. In C. El Morr, R. Gorman, E. Dolatabadi, & L. Seyed-Kalantari (Eds.), Equity and artificial intelligence: Possibilities for justice and liberation. York University Press.

Refereed Short Article
Oveisy, F. (2022, December). Farewell, Rojava: The Philosophical Case for Strategic Thinking as a Democratic Necessity. In D. J. Smith (Ed.), Rethinking Democracy in Kurdistan [Special issue]. Philosophy, World, Democracy.

Refereed Encyclopedic Entries
Oveisy, F. (2015). Cart T. Dreyer. In S. Ross (Ed.), Routledge Encyclopedia of Modernism.

Oveisy, F. (2015). Elia Kazan. In S. Ross (Ed.), Routledge Encyclopedia of Modernism.

Oveisy, F. (2015). Stanley Kubrick. In S. Ross (Ed.), Routledge Encyclopedia of Modernism.

Oveisy, F. (2015). Andrei Tarkovsky. In S. Ross (Ed.), Routledge Encyclopedia of Modernism.

Oveisy, F. (2015). Kenneth Anger’s “Fireworks.” In S. Ross (Ed.), Routledge Encyclopedia of Modernism.

Select Human Rights Reports
Oveisy, F., & Moghtaderi, H. (2014). Iranian queer watch: Annual report on the violation of queer rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Iranian Railroad for Queer Refugees.

Oveisy, F., & Haerinejad, F. (2015). Best defence practices for LGBT defendants in Iranian courts. The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission.

Select Public-facing
Oveisy, F. (2024). The impact of China’s Belt and Road Initiative on the Middle East’s Kurds. Zamaneh

Oveisy, F. (2021). The Authoritarian turn of global capital and its contradictions in the USA. Socialist Project.

Oveisy, F. (2020). A Mutating neoliberalism, socialist transitions, and their foreign policies. Hampton Institute.

Oveisy, F. (2020). Rojava after Rojava. ROAR.

Oveisy, F. (2019). Revolution and counterrevolution in Rojava. Socialist Project.

Oveisy, F., & Burc, R. (2019). Rojava is under existential threat. Jacobin.

Oveisy, F., & Amini, B. (2018). Iran Protests: A third path to political change. Socialist Project.

Oveisy, F. (2015). Bodies, breath, and borders. réflexion(s)

 

Select Other Experience
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––Editorial Work
Editor-in-Chief – The Rojava Strategy, rojavastrategy.com

Select Activism Work
Union Organiser, Trainer, and Recruiter – UAW Local 2865, UC Irvine, 2018–2019

Select Human Rights Work
Researcher and Translator – Iran Human Rights Documentation Centre, 2013–2014

Researcher – The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, 2013

Translator – Freedom House, Gozaar Project, 2008–2010

Select Engineering Positions
Product Development Engineer – Teknion, 2011–2012

Mechanical Engineer – Amico, 2009–2010