Shahrzad Hashemi, (PhD Researcher)

I was born in Shiraz, a city located in the southwest of Iran, then moved to Tehran where I studied a BSc in Clinical Psychology followed by a MA in Family Therapy. Meanwhile, I have been in training for psychoanalytic psychotherapy based on a tri-partite model, personal analysis, theory courses, and clinical supervision. I have been a psychoanalytic psychotherapist in Tehran, working mainly with individual adults and adolescents for about 9 years.

My main research interest is the application of psychoanalytic attitude and concepts to non-clinical settings and areas such as media studies, education, immigration, and medical conditions. Currently, I am working on the psychodynamics of cinema and television spectatorship as my Ph.D. project. 

The title of my Ph.D. project is "What movies us in moving images? A psychoanalytic investigation of spectatorship." The aim is to study the conscious and unconscious motives and functions of cinema and Tv spectatorship where I am only focusing on movies, series, and mini-series. In doing this, I am particularly curious to find out the nature of repetitive and avoidance patterns of watching as well as the experience of being moved by it.

The Research Training Support Grant (RTSG) as a part of my Vice Chancellors Research Scholarship (VCRS)