Gunha Kim is a Work Study Student with the Cinema Iranica project. Currently, Gunha is a PhD student in the Department of Near & Middle Eastern Civilizations, University of Toronto. Previously, he studied at Seoul National University. Gunha’s doctoral project examines the historical development of the discourse of voluntary death—that is, suicide and martyrdom—in 20th century Iran. In particular, his dissertation aims to connect the concurrent development of psychiatric studies on suicide, the necropolitical discourse of martyrdom, and the environmental discourse of pollution as a mass suicide. Gunha has been involved with multiple academic projects related to Iran. For instance, he has contributed as a digital archivist at the Persian Archive, has conducted research for the Encyclopedia of Iranian Cinema and Iranian Women Poets, and, more recently, served as an editorial intern for Iran Namag: A Quarterly of Iranian Studies.
“Since October 2021, I have participated in four of Elahé Omidyar Mir-Djalali Institute of Iranian Studies’ projects: building an encyclopedia on the topic of Iranian Cinema and Iranian Women Poets, cataloging historical materials at the archive specialized in the Persianate world, and assisting in the editing process and operation of an academic periodical of Iranian Studies, Irannamag.
My primary task for encyclopedia projects was to produce a bibliography that would be the resource for articles of the compendium and recognize experts in the topic that ranges from individual movie directors, actors, and film, to themes such as masculinity, sexuality, and women in Iranian cinema for the cinema project and historical or contemporary Persianate women poets for the women poet project. Through exploring relevant primary and secondary sources, I could familiarize myself with these two topics that have specific significance in the field of Iranian Studies—due to the political situation in the Islamic Republic, cinema and poetry have been one of the major historical lenses to study Iranian society—learn how to obtain meaningful data and see how the digital archive is being constructed in collaborative efforts. The comprehensive methodology of the team, in particular, requires me to explore outside of the field of Iranian Studies, opening up the possibility and perspective for the interdisciplinary and global turn of the studies, while I could also learn major scholarly figures in the field.
For the Iranian Archive project, I classified, cataloged, and digitized primary historical materials that Professor Tavakoli-Targhi has devoted his lifetime collecting. The difficulty of accessing information is the most critical problem in studying modern Iranian history due to the domestic censorship in Iran and the dispersed nature of historical materials held by private owners outside of the country. By participating in its digitization and firsthand observation of how they are being collected, I could access rich historical resources, probably one of the best in North America, and learn the process of extracting the necessary information from given material to name and tag it, learning how the digital methodology in humanities works. Working in the archive also provided me with collaborative opportunities with researchers from different institutional backgrounds.
Finally, I worked as an editorial and managerial intern at the bilingual academic journal of Iranian Studies, Irannamag. I got a glimpse of how the academic journal operates with contributors, including authors, reviewers, editors, typesetters, designers, and board members among many others, and learned to read articles in the eye of the editor and make suggestions.
Overall, work-study projects organized by the institute have tremendous implications for students who are seeking to work in academia or else. Digital literacy, a critical approach to data, public engagement, and global outlook are the assets that are critically asked for nowadays. As someone who is non-Iranian and studied outside of North America, I would like to fully support the projects’ global significance in the field of Iranian Studies and beyond.“