FARNOUSH MOZAFARI

Farnoush Mozafari is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Sociology at York University. In addition to specializing in social psychology and psychoanalysis, Mozafari taught Sociological Perspectives in Social Psychology at York University for a number of years. Whilst undergoing social service work training, between 2005 and 2008, she worked – just to name a few – at York Central Hospital’s Long Term Care Facility, Regeneration Community Services in partnership with the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), and the Healthy Beginnings and Family Drop-In Program at Davenport Perth Community Center. Using a micro-practice based approach, which involves working with couples, families, small groups, and individual clients, Mozafari focuses on ongoing research to identify the differential impact of various theories, methods, and techniques in responding to client needs and requests, regardless of background or origin. She is currently a trainee at the Toronto Psychoanalytic Society’s Advanced Training Program for Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy in affiliation with University of Toronto’s Faculty of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry.

ACADEMIC PROFILE

Mozafari’s research is practice based and fundamentally interdisciplinary, taking shape at the intersection of (neuro)psychoanalysis, phenomenology, social psychology, cognitive science, philosophy of science, social theory and sociology of knowledge/science. Her current doctoral research study, inspired by her Master's thesis entitled "Perceiving Unobservable Entities: Recovering the Scientific Experience through the Fact & Unconscious", examines current trauma intervention models used in mental health to service refugees and/or individuals who have faced forced migration. This study is a narrative analysis that will be conducted through a retrospective longitudinal method using systematic case studies and single-case designs from her own practice in an effort to deduce whether or not conventional trauma medical models reproduce or disrupt ‘refugeeness’. This research has been reviewed and approved by the Human Participants Review Sub-Committee, York University’s Ethics Review Board and conforms to the standards of the Canadian Tri-Council Research Ethics guidelines. Should you wish to inquire about this study, Mozafari can be contacted via e-mail.

Mozafari previously taught Sociological Perspectives in Social Psychology at York University. The course examined intersubjectivity, contemporary and classical interpretive approaches, methods in social psychology, methodological issues and ethics, selfhood (processual and structural), positivism/postmodernism, personality and character, motivation, emotion, social structures, deviant behaviors and communities, mental health and illness, and body/embodiment.

SCIENCE AND RELIGION: EXPLORING THE SPECTRUM

Mozafari was an Honorary Affiliate Researcher for the research project Science and Religion: Exploring the Spectrum, which aims to build a new understanding of the increasingly polemical public debates surrounding evolution and religion today and will comprise multidisciplinary humanities and social science studies conducted in the UK and Canada. This innovative and unique research project will employ four intersecting approaches: qualitative social science field research; oral history, historical and media discourse analysis; social psychology experimental research; and a large scale quantitative survey of public perceptions, attitudes and identity formation in the UK and Canada.

Newman University, in Birmingham, England, will lead this three-year research project funded by the Templeton Religion Trust in partnership with York University (Canada) and National Life Stories at the British Library and British Science Association. The research team is led by principal investigators Dr. Fern Elsdon-Baker (Newman) and Professor Bernard Lightman (York, Canada), and co-investigators Dr. Carola Leicht (University of Kent) and Dr. Rebecca Catto.

 Visit the website at: http://sciencereligionspectrum.org/