Atefeh Zargarzadeh

Atefeh (Aati) Zargarzadeh is a PhD candidate in Theatre Studies and a Graduate Student Fellow at the Centre for Global Studies, University of Victoria. She is interested in intercultural theatre historiography, decolonizing diaspora studies, and digital repository development, with a focus on preserving cultural heritage and amplifying marginalized voices in Canada. Her doctoral project aims to historicize nuanced narratives of dislocation and identity negotiation within minoritized communities, particularly focusing on less-represented Middle Eastern immigrant theatre practitioners in the diaspora. It critically examines how these diverse exilic identities intersect with the politics of theatre production, cultural appropriation, and the commodification of identity representations within Canada’s intercultural theatre spaces and digital platforms.

Aati is currently co-editor of the forthcoming book project, Routledge Companion for Language Reawakening through the Arts (2026) and a member of the Local Arrangements Committee for the Canadian Association for Theatre Research (CATR) Conference (2026). She has co-authored several publications on theatre and Indigenous language revitalization, including “Language Reawakening through Theatre” in the Routledge Handbook of Arts and Global Development and “Healing-ish Healing: Languages Heroes on an Indigenous Theatre Festival” in Performing Knowledge: Arts-Based Research in Global Development.

Aati is also deeply engaged in collaborative and community-based projects. She has co-organized and designed graphics/website for the Indigenous Theatre Festival at UVic (2022, 2025), supported the Reconciling with Water project (2025) through graphic/website design and repository development, and contributed as a research assistant and co-author to How We Gather Now: A Finding Aid (part of the SSHRC-funded Gatherings Project: Archival and Oral Histories of Performance, 2021). She has also collaborated as an artist on The Art of Natural Systems (2025), an international initiative integrating art, nature, and creative practice to advance research on well-being and intercultural exchange.

Aati’s work is rooted in both scholarly rigor and community engagement, positioning theatre as a vital space for cultural preservation, language revitalization, and intercultural dialogue.