Behnaz Ghazi Moradi

Spatiality, Religion, and Body: Relocating Female Experiences in Post-Revolutionary Iran

In this autoethnographic study, I explored the emotional, sensory, and imaginativeconnections to specific places in Isfahan, Iran, both through my own reflections(biography) and also through conversations with others. The choice of evocative languagewas an intellectual strategy designed to convey intimate, sensory details. The sensorialand often fragmented nature of memory, as explored in this dissertation, could not beadequately captured by dry or purely ‘factual’ descriptions instead, it demanded a morenuanced exploration of how we engage with spaces sensorialy. Themes like ‘nostalgia,’‘body memory,’ and ‘imagination’ emerged as central to how we conceptualize spaces,intertwining perception and thought in deeply embodied experiences. Conversations andnarrativity revealed other themes, like ‘spatial anxiety,’ ‘absence,’ ‘loss,’ and‘timelessness,’ which were all significant in shaping participants' responses to the urban space of Isfahan and its historical sites. Some participants found that ‘commemoration’ helped process these emotional shifts, reflecting a shared impulse to make sense of thepast. However, experiences like ‘trauma’ and ‘mourning’ were more personal and context dependent,emphasizing the individual nature of memory. The implication of ‘utopia’ wasanother theme that surfaced mildly, aligning with broader social processes where memoryserves as a tool for reimagining a better future amid sociopolitical contradictions. Thediversity of themes; ‘homecoming,’ ‘shelter,’ and ‘awe’, underscored the multifaceted ways people attach meaning to these places.Building on these reflections, I sought to narrate fragmented stories about how these sensorial receptions generate resonances or alienations that extend beyond individualexperiences and permeate the physical environment. I depicted silence, loss, and absence through the lens of fragmented memory, weaving themes of mourning and melancholia.These emotional and psychological states intertwined with my bodily experience, habits, and patterns, creating a sense of body image that was tied to ‘invisibility’ and ‘death’. Iconveyed how, in this atmosphere, my body seemed to become a property of death, a symbol of absence that was shaped not only by the war but also by the pervasive mourning rituals that defined the cultural narrative of that era. These reflections deepened my exploration of how memory shapes the experience of space, connecting the body to notjust life but also to the haunting presence of loss.Hartmut Rosa’s theory of resonance provided a key framework, suggesting that our connection to the world is not merely cognitive or reflexive, but fundamentally ‘bodily’and ‘affective’. My own experiences in Isfahan revealed how the ‘resonant forces’ of memory and place shape both my internal world and the external spaces I inhabit. Thedynamic fusion of my body and the places I visited blurred the line between self and environment, reinforcing the idea that the world is an extension of the body’s affectivelife.Through these intentional engagements, I illustrated how both my own body and the lived stories of others animate and give meaning to the urban spaces in Isfahan, making theplaces I explored not just backdrops but active participants in the resonance process. This ‘deep relationality’ between body and world, as Rosa emphasized, forms the basis of ourconnections to space, shaping how we navigate and interpret the world around us.