About me

Where My Field Found Me

I didn’t travel far. My field site was my own neighborhood — the place where I was born and raised.
In the heart of it lies a memorial for five unknown martyrs from the Iran–Iraq war, buried beside a small mosque almost twenty years ago.
The place is quiet but alive — full of visitors, prayers, and whispers of longing.

There, among the families of fallen soldiers and others who came to mourn, I began listening — truly listening — and everything changed.
That was the moment I realized this was what I had been searching for all along.

Living Among Stories of Grief

I’m Narges Emami, a graduate with a Master’s in Anthropology from the University of Tehran.
From my very first semester studying sociology, one question followed me everywhere:

How do humans live with grief?

Every project, every research paper I wrote, somehow led me back to death, mourning, and memory. By the time I started my master’s thesis, I knew this wasn’t just an academic interest — it was personal.

Turning Research into Life

At the University of Tehran, anthropology students must live in their research field for at least two months. While most people chose villages or communities, I chose something different — a cemetery. Not because I was interested in rituals of burial, but because I wanted to understand mourning itself:

How loss reshapes people’s minds, relationships, and sense of identity.

Why I Study Grief

Long before I could define it, I had already lived it.
Studying grief became a way to understand my own losses, to see how pain and love continue to coexist in human life.

Everything I share here — my field notes, interviews, reflections, and essays — comes from that journey.

Curriculum Vitae

Personal Information

Full name: Narges Emami Shoushtari

Date of birth: 30/01/1995

Email: narges@emami.io

Education

Degree Institution Years

B.A. in Sociology Allameh Tabatabaei University 2014–2018

M.A. in Anthropology University of Tehran 2018–2021

MA Thesis: Ritual honoring of martyrs in everyday life. A phenomenological study on the people of Iran Street.

Research Interests

Death studies; Martyrdom; Grief, Mediation between living and dead, Religion; Linguistic anthropology on the relation of religion.

Publications

Emami Shoushtari, N. (2025). Article published in the Social Studies and Research in Iran magazine, University of Tehran, Faculty of Social Sciences, Institute of Social Studies and Research. Homepage: https://jisr.ut.ac.ir/?lang=en

E- ISSN: 2588-6355

DOI: https://doi.org/10.22059/jisr.2025.393719.1614

Conferences / Presentations

Directed and edited two documentary films based on:

- Chernobyl: The History of a Nuclear Catastrophe by Serhii Plokhy

- The Unwomanly Face of War by Svetlana Alexievich

Length: 45 min and 20 min. These films reflect the emotional and historical sense of the books.

Independent Research Project

The Ethnography of Spirits — https://www.ethnographyofspirits.com
Founder and Author, 2025–present

Developed and curated an ongoing research blog exploring the anthropology of death, grief, and mediation between the living and the dead in Iran.
Present ethnographic reflections from fieldwork in Tehran and Qeshm Island, analyzing cultural practices of spirituality(Zar) and studies of gender.
Combine academic theory and field narratives to make anthropological concepts accessible to a wider audience.

Teaching Experience

Two years of teaching and social work with a charity organization in southern Iran, helping young girls understand their rights and encouraging them to continue their high school studies. Maintains close contact with 17 students living on Qeshm Island.

Languages

Persian (native), English (fluent), Arabic (basic —reading books).

Skills

• Painting (Iranian flower art)

• Observational astronomy

• 2 years SEO experience (One Click Cars, London)

• Film editing (Adobe Premiere Pro)

• Motion graphics with templates (After Effects)

• Teaching (lesson planning )

• Amazon seller account management (1 year)

• Web design with WordPress

• Strong knowledge of Persian literature; 1st place in Tehran poetry competition (11th grade 2012).