This presentation explores how transnational spaces formed by Iranian women activists become emotionally charged zones of negotiation, transformation, and uncertainty. Drawing on multi-sited ethnographic research in Berlin, Los Angeles, and Tehran, the study shows that diasporic settings are never merely geographic, but socially constructed spaces where past political experiences, trauma, and hope converge. In these encounters — such as conferences and activist gatherings — women navigate shifting affective boundaries, where trust, visibility, safety, and belonging remain constantly in flux. These spaces operate as liminal arenas: neither fully inside nor outside the nation, but shaped through memories, political positionalities, and the emotional labour of negotiation.
Judith Albrecht is a social anthropologist, visual ethnographer, and curator whose work lies at the intersection of science and committed public anthropology. With gender as her central analytical lens, she explores power structures and knowledge production across diverse contexts. Her interdisciplinary research encompasses gender and social movements, migration and diaspora, care work, trauma, violence and memory, transcultural media- and filmwork.