Finding Meaning Beyond A College Degree
Pardis Mahdavi | Podcast
PUBLIC SPEAKING
Conversations That Challenge Assumptions.
Ideas that Inspire Action.
Pardis Mahdavi is an internationally recognized scholar, author, anthropologist, and higher education leader whose work explores the intersection of education, technology, leadership, creativity, and human potential. Whether speaking to university leaders, corporate audiences, or global organizations, she invites people to think beyond conventional wisdom and imagine new possibilities for the future.
TED Talks, Public Speaking, and Interviews
Why the Education System Is Failing: What Must Change Now
Pardis Mahdavi | Genius Network
The Creative Spark that Ignited a Revolution
Pardis Mahdavi | TEDxURI
Design a Paradigm for Social Impact
Pardis Mahdavi | TEDxArtCenterCollegeOfDesign
KEYNOTES
Inspire Keynote • January 29th, 2025
University of La Verne • August 1, 2023
Message from President-Elect Dr. Pardis Mahdavi
Pardis Mahdavi responds to being selected as the University of La Verne's 19th President and looks forward to meeting all in Fall 2023.
Claremont McKenna College • February 23, 2023
Women, Life, Freedom: Inside Iran's New Revolution - Pardis Mahdavi
It has been over four months since Mahsa Amini's death under suspicious circumstances in Tehran. Arrested for allegedly not wearing the hijab, her death activated wide-spread protests across Iran. Despite brutal pushback from the Iranian regime, the protestors, including women and girls, did not back down. They continue to seek new ways to speak their truth and to speak out against the regime. Drawing on over two decades of research on sexual politics in Iran, as well as her personal experiences at the hands of the morality police, Pardis Mahdavi, professor of anthropology and provost and executive vice president at the University of Montana, will give a front-row seat to the dramatic changes happening in Iran today.
THE Campus Learn, Share, Connect • February 15, 2023
How US universities can future-proof skills education to boost graduate employability
Offering microcredentials, “backward-designed” courses focused on skills, and embedding the latest technologies into curricula can help universities nurture job-ready graduates for the future workforce. Experts from academia and industry joined a recent Times Higher Education round table, held in partnership with Adobe, to discuss methods of adapting skills education to create more employable US college graduates.
Free Speech TV • February 1, 2023
Countdown to the Midterms: Protests in Iran with Pardis Mahdavi
Iranian American scholar #PardisMahdavi says the current protests and latest uprisings in Iran are built on the resistance of the previous generations. Mahdavi's recent book, Passionate Uprisings, chronicles a recent sexual revolution among Iranian youth, in defiance of the country's conservative regime. Fifteen years ago the morality police - a branch of the Islamic regime's police charged with upholding conservative dress code and behavioral norms - barged in while she was giving a lecture in Tehran.
TRANSFORMATIONS • August 1, 2020
Mahdavi on Belonging — TRANSFORMATIONS
Pardis Mahdavi is a professor in Arizona State University’s School of Social Transformation and dean of social sciences in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
GBH News • September 28, 2022
‘A 40-year struggle’: Will Iran’s protests bring about real regime change?
Iranians continue to protest over the death of a 22-year-old woman in police custody earlier this month. Women and men alike have taken to the streets, with many women removing and burning their hijabs and headscarves in acts of defiance. Pardis Mahdavi, author of ‘Passionate Uprisings: Iran’s Sexual Revolution” joined Jim Braude to share her run-in with the so-called ‘morality police’. Tara Sonenshine, professor of practice at The Fletcher School at Tufts University also joined as the three discussed what could bring about real change in the country. GBH News is a premier source for in-depth local news and original story telling based in Boston, Massachusetts. Subscribe to the GBH YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/gbhnews?sub_confirmation=1 Follow GBH News on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gbhnews/ Like GBH News on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gbhnews/ Follow GBH News on Twitter: https://twitter.com/GBHNews