The mid-term evaluation is organized in two parts and starts with a 2-hour public seminar, followed by a closed meeting.
The purpose of the evaluation is to assess the progress of the PhD project at a point when it is still possible to make small or substantial changes. In general, we want to know how the candidate is doing, how much work is done, and what is left.
About the PhD candidate and her research
Zahra Abbasi is a PhD candidate and lecturer at the University of Oslo and a Visiting Predoctoral Fellow at MPIWG, 2022–2023. She has a background in comparative literature and experience in care practices. Her PhD project pertains to understanding online-offline conceptualizations of mental health in contemporary Iran. At the MPIWG she is hosted by the interdisciplinary Lise Meitner Research Group “China in the Global System of Science” (Dr Anna L. Ahlers) and the Max Planck Research Group “Practices of Validation in the Biomedical Sciences” (Dr Lara Keuck). She has published and presented her work on alternative forms of mental health. She is also a board member of the Junior Network for Migration and Intercultural Relations in Norway.
Her thesis focuses on three interwoven areas germane to knowledges of care in contemporary Iran: the notion of the healthy body and mind as identity markers, the conceptualizations of social responsibility as care advocacy; and the construction process of the concept “competent citizen.” Given the rapid increase in the Iranian diaspora since early 2010s, among other factors, she studies the development of new health norms and self-care practices via nonofficial (online) platforms, along with the emergence of celebrity psychologists. Key to this project is unpacking the motivations and dynamics at work in such spaces like social media, and popular culture.