Dr Amin Hashemi

Biography

Amin is an Iranian interdisciplinary researcher in ethnomusicology, discourse analysis, psychoanalysis and urban studies from Tehran. He focuses on the links between musical creativity and subjectivity, the transformations of the paradigms and the links between urban space and culture.

Now, his current research at the University of Aberdeen as a Leverhulme Early Career Research Fellow examines the relationships between the ongoing processes of the articulation of the subjectivity of migrant Iranian musicians in the UK, their musical creativity and their cultural integration to the British society. His research is drawn on an interdisciplinary framework of ethnomusicology and psychoanalysis.

His previous postdoctoral research was an understanding of the often neglected relationships between the creative processes of the practice of rock music by the Iranian youth in the making of their subjectivity and the characteristics of the social space of the Iranian university that they attend to, as a unique social space in contemporary Iran.

His PhD Thesis was on antagonism in popular music of post-revolution Iran, focused on the events and cases between 2013 and 2018, especially in regards to the politics of culture and everyday musical practices.

His MA dissertation looked into revivalist discourses in music institutions of Pahlavi II Era (the 1960s) and examined how policies, artistic values and self awareness fundamentally changed the context and content of the classical Iranian music. 

Prizes and Awards

• Iran Heritage Foundation grant (2025)
• Leverhulme Early Career Individual Fellowship (2022-2025)
• Recognised as Global Talent/Exceptional Promise by the British Academy (2022)
• The Vice-Presidency of Science & Technology Postdoctoral Grant (2020-21)
• Felix Full-Fund PhD Scholarships (2014-17)
• SOAS, University of London Fieldwork Grants (2016)

Research Overview

• Cultural History
• Subjectivity
• Musical Creativity
• Integration
• Migration

Current Research

Integration and the Making of Subjectivity via Musical Creativity, funded by the Leverhulme Trust as an Early Career Individual Fellowship at the University of Aberdeen.

Past Research

• The Practice of Rock Music as Differentiation in the Process of Subjectivity of Young Iranians in Universities as a postdoctoral fellow at ISCS, Tehran, Iran. (2021-2022)
• Hegemonic Shifts in the Discourse of Air Pollution in London as a research associate collaborating with Bloomsbury SET Sandpit: COVID Response: Understanding people, business and culture in combating infectious disease and antimicrobial resistance at the Centre for Global Media and Communication, School of Interdisciplinary Studies, SOAS University of London, UK. (2020-2021)
• Antagonism in Popular Music of Post-Revolution Iran, PhD at SOAS, University of London, UK. (2014-2019)

Knowledge Exchange

• Iranian Culture and the Persian New Year, exhibition and installation at the Students Union, University of Aberdeen, March 2024. 

Collaborations

• Network Member at the AHRC funded project The Inner Music and Wellbeing with the PI Professor Freya Bailes. since 2024. Link
• Network Member at the Leverhulme Trust funded project Sonic Tehran with the PI Professor Laudan Nooshin. 2021-2023. Link

Funding and Grants

• Iran Heritage Foundation events grant (2025)
• Leverhulme Early Career Individual Fellowship (2022-2025)
• Recognised as Global Talent/Exceptional Promise by the British Academy (2022)
• The Vice-Presidency of Science & Technology Postdoctoral Grant (2020-21)
• Felix Full-Fund PhD Scholarships (2014-17)
• SOAS, University of London Fieldwork Grants (2016)