Dr. Mitra Shamsi

Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Center for Advanced Internet Studies (CAIS), CAIS - Center for Advanced Internet Studies

Vita

Mitra Shamsi is a postdoctoral research fellow based at the Center for Advanced Internet Studies (CAIS), Bochum, Germany. Her research focuses on digital feminist activism in the Iranian context, examining the construction of digital feminist discourses as they traverse both inside the country and within the diaspora. In her current research trajectory, she is interested in ways in which online women's rights campaigners navigate and respond to nationalist narratives, with a specific focus on the recent Women, Life, Freedom uprising.

Arbeitsschwerpunkte

Digital feminist activism, feminist movements, Online gendered narratives, online activism, politics of visibility, political communication, digital politics, political imaginaries, nationalism in digital media, digital publics in authoritarian contexts, digital ethnography, visual analysis

Veröffentlichungen (Auswahl)

Shamsi, M. (2026). Contested visibility: Mapping mediation opportunities in Iranian digital feminist activism. International Journal of Communication, 20, 1–25. DOI: doi.org/10.65476/rhnwyp87

Shamsi, M. (2026). Navigating Iranian digital feminist activism through multi-sited mobile ethnography. In D. Proctor (Ed.), Practicing digital ethnography (pp. 118–125). Routledge. doi.org/10.4324/9781032672663

Shamsi, M. (2026). Unravelling the Nation: Digital Contestations of Gendered Narratives in the Iranian Women, Life, Freedom Movement. AoIR Selected Papers of Internet Research. doi.org/10.5210/spir.v2024i0.15318

Shamsi, Mitra (2025). Book review of Hossein Kermani (2025): Twitter Activism in Iran: Social Media and Democracy in Authoritarian Regimes. Global Media Journal – German Edition, 15(1), doi.org/10.60678/gmj-de.v15i1.338

Ravadrad, A., & Shamsi, M. (2022). Popular feminism on Iranian Instagram: A content analysis of digital materials produced by Iranian women’s rights activists. Society, Culture and Media, 11(42), 11–42. [In Persian]. www.jscm.ir/article_150979.html

Ravadrad, A., & Shamsi, M. (2021). The life and times of Iranian women on Instagram: An ideological analysis of women’s photographs on Instagram. New Media Studies, 7(26), 131–170. [In Persian]. doi.org/10.22054/nms.2021.35786.593

Expertise für

digital feminist activism, Iranian feminism, Women Life Freedom movement, gender and digital media, feminist movements in Iran, online activism, digital politics in Iran, political communication in authoritarian contexts, nationalism and gender politics, digital publics, digital ethnography

Fächergruppe

Sprach- und Kulturwissenschaften, Kunst und Gestaltung