Written by Meher Mehtab, Photo from NU-Q Website
While working as a film projectionist at a local art house movie theatre during his college summers in New Orleans, Kaveh Askari, associate professor in residence in the communication program at Northwestern University in Qatar, found himself interested in film art.
Askari, who was born in the United States to an Iranian father and Dutch mother, moved to Iran as an infant and then back to the USA while he was still young. As an undergraduate student, he attended what he describes as a small ‘hippie’ college called New College of Florida, previously known as the New College of University of South Florida. His college, being twice the size of NU-Q with a student body of 500 people, allowed students to design their own majors. And so Askari, given his passionate interest in the art of filmmaking, combined philosophy and film studies to design his own bachelor’s degree. He said it was a decision he didn’t regret at any point.
While in college, Askari also worked with the local cinemas to arrange events for the community. This got him and his friends free tickets to the movie screenings.
“I saw all the movies that were aired in that time period, I was kind of delighted,” Askari recalled.
When it came time to apply to graduate programs, Askari had no doubt in his mind that he wanted to pursue cinema and media studies and enrolled in the University of Chicago, where he completed both his graduate and postgraduate degrees.
Coming to Doha and doing research about cinemas in Iran and the MENA region and the circulation of foreign films and technologies in the region, was an easy decision for Askari.
“I have travelled a lot, if you count all the places I have lived in for over a month, there are like 34 places. I like to experience different places and that was part of the motivation to come here,” he said. He is now studying Arabic, which he is pursuing through online tutoring. He also has taken classes at the Translation and Interpreting Institute in Education City.
Before coming to Qatar, Askari had one connection to Doha: the same architect who designed the Museum of Islamic Art, I.M. Pei, designed his dormitory in college.
One of the things that excited Askari about his move to Doha was the opportunity to practice his kite surfing hobby, as Qatar is one of the best locations for it. He also has an elaborate garden back at home in the States and loves gardening. “I also love watching movies but that’s kind of my job so not much of a hobby,” he said with a chuckle.
Askari has previously worked at the Western Washington University and has held a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Humanities at University of California, Berkeley. He said that teaching at the same place for a long time and going over the same films can produce monotonous discussions, so he is excited to teach his material in a different region and get observations about films that none of his former students made.
“The kind of things students decide to write papers about is totally different, so I am just looking forward to learning from the students,” he said.
