—

As a Ph.D. and Lecturer in UCLA’s Department of Gender Studies, I spent the last seven years studying how queer and trans people find spiritual meaning. The more I studied queer and trans spiritual existence, ritual, and history, the more I realized the answers I was searching for were not in the books I was reading. They were in the crackling fire under a starry sky, the utter silence of a sunrise in the mountain tops, the warmth of the sun’s rays on my chest.

While at UCLA, I completed my dissertation research on how queer, trans, and nonbinary Iranian Americans experience their relationship to Islam, God, faith, and spirituality. I created and led courses on Trans Magic: Spiritual Explorations of Gender Nonconformity, Muslim Feminisms: Queer & Trans Perspectives, and Power: U.S. Empire and QTPoC Resistances. I’ve served on UCLA’s Trans Wellness Team for three years, working to provide gender-affirming healthcare to trans, nonbinary, and gender non-conforming students across the University of California. Through all my time at the University, I learned that although I’m an academic by training, my heart is a ball of spiritual mush.

And now, I practice as a public speaker, spiritual guide, and inspirational soul. I hold workshops, give lectures, as well as hold private individual spiritual guidance sessions for clients who wish to expand their spiritual practice. When I get a moment to myself, I’m likely hiking in the mountains of Colorado, foraging wild foods, or obsessing over my vegetable garden.