Senior Lecturer | Undergrad Chair

E: daniel_ahadi@sfu.ca
Room: K8647

Daniel Ahadi

Daniel Ahadi is an uninvited settler of Iranian descent on these unceded territories of the Coast Salish peoples, a Senior Lecturer in the School of Communication, and an aliated faculty member at The Digital Democracies Institute. His research focuses on the development of self and identity within the context of media, migration, globalization, and formation of transnational diasporas.

He is the co-editor of The Handbook of Ethnic Media in Canada (McGillQueen's University Press, 2023), with Sherry S. Yu at University of Toronto and Ahmed Al-Rawi at Simon Fraser University. 

Education

  • PhD Simon Fraser University (2016) 
  • MA University of Stockholm (2004)
  • BA Simon Fraser University (2002)

CURRENTLY TEACHING

daniel teaches

Undergraduate: 

  • CMNS 110: Introduction to Communication Studies 
  • CMNS 202: Introduction to Qualitative Research Methods in Communication 
  • CMNS 362: Evaluation Methods for Applied Communication Research 
  • CMNS 428: Media Analysis Project Group 
  • CMNS 432: Political Communication, Public Opinion, and Political Marketing

Graduate: 

  • CMNS 848: Communication and Global Social Justice
  • CMNS 849: Communication Research for Social Change

PUBLICATIONS

Books

  • Ahadi, D., Yu, S., & Al-Rawi, A. (2023). The Handbook of Ethnic Media in Canada. McGill-Queen’s University Press.
  • McAllister, K., Yoshimizu, A., & Ahadi, D. (In press. Forthcoming, 2025). Migration and the Politics of Methodology: Doing Fieldwork, Decentring Power, and Foregrounding Migrants’ Perspectives. London: Routledge. 
  • Ahadi, D. and Keshavarzian, H. (Forthcoming, 2025). The Woman, Life, Freedom Movement: A Turning Point in the Struggle for Liberty and Justice in Iran. Fernwood Publishing.

 Journal Articles

  • Ahadi, D., Pedri, J., & Nichols, D. (2019). Implementing First-Year Experience curriculum in a large lecture course: Opportunities, challanges, and myths. The Canadian Journal of Higher Education, 49(2), 73-90. 
  • Yu, S. & Ahadi, D. (2010). Promoting civic engagement through ethic media. PLATFORM: Journal of Media and Communication. 2 (2), 54-71.
  • Ahadi, D. & Murray, C. (2009). Urban mediascapes and multicultural flows: Vancouver’s communication infrastructure. Canadian Journal of Communication, 33 (2), 587-612. 
  • Ahadi, D. (2009). L’Affaire Hérouxville in context: Conflicting narratives on Islam, Muslim women, and identity. Journal of Arab and Muslim Media Research, 2 (3), 241-260.

Book Chapters

  • Ahadi, D. (Forthcoming, 2025). Construction of belonging in North Vancouver’s Edgemont Village: Space and the everyday performance of whiteness. In McAllister, K. E., Yoshimizu, A., & Ahadi, D. (Eds.), Migration and the Politics of Methodology: Doing Fieldwork, Decentring Power, and Foregrounding Migrants’ Perspectives. London: Routledge.
  • Ahadi, D. (Forthcoming, 2025). Iranian Media in Diaspora and the Exercise of Soft Power. In Ahadi, D. and Keshavarzian, H. (Eds.), The Woman, Life, Freedom Movement: A Turning Point in the Struggle for Liberty and Justice in Iran. Fernwood Publishing. 
  • Yu, S. and Ahadi, D. (2023). Researching Canadian Ethnic Media: Conceptual and Methodological Inquiries. In Ahadi, D., Yu, S., and Al-Rawi, A. (Eds.), The Handbook of Ethnic Media in Canada. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press.
  • Ahadi, D. (2019). Disrupting the digital: Persian-language community radio in Stockholm and the continued relevance of analogue media in a digital age. In Sherry S. Yu and Matthew Matsaganis (Ed.), Ethnic media in the digital era. Routledge. 
  • Matsaganis, M. & Ahadi, D. (2018). Ethnic media and acculturation. In Young Yun Kim (Ed.), International Encyclopaedia ofLIntercultural Communication. WileyBlackwell.
  • Ahadi, D. (2015). Against all odds: Making underground music in Iran. In Jacqueline Kennelly and Stuart Poyntz (eds.), Phenomenology of youth cultures andLglobalization: Lifeworlds and surplus meaning inLchanging times. London: Routledge.

Policy Reports

  • Ahadi, D. (2010). Towards a cross-cultural approach to mental health and counselling in Vancouver: Development of S.U.C.C.E.S.S.’s mental health counselling and support services for immigrant communities. Vancouver: Centre for Policy Research on Culture and Communities. Report to S.U.C.C.E.S.S. & Metropolis (80 pages).
  • Murray, C., Yu, S. & Ahadi, D. (2007). Cultural diversity and ethnic media in British Columbia. Vancouver: Centre for Policy Research on Culture and Communities. Report to the Department of Canadian Heritage (144 pages).

research interest

Media representation; post-colonial and anti-colonial theory; critical race studies; queer theory; intersectionality; critcal multiculturalism studies; ethnic media; applied research in curriculum design and theories of learning; qualitative research methods; critical analysis of academic research traditions and methodological practices; the relationship between knowledge/power, voice, and positionality.

GRADUATE SUPERVISION

Ongoing Supervision
Hoornaz Keshavarzian (PhD)
Ali Sayyah (PhD)
Paola Sawaya (MA)

Ongoing Committee
Shauna-Kaye Brown (MA)

Completed Supervision
Mozhgan Fazli (MA)
Rockson Obeng (MA)
Maxine Yeo (MA)
Muyi Yang (MA)
Yichi Tsai (MA)

Completed Committee
Mina Einifar (MA)
Elly Habibullah (MA)

SELECT CONFERENCES

Ahadi, D. (2024). Iranian diasporic media: The rise and fall (and rise again) of ManotoTV. Association for Iranian Studies Conference (AIS). Mexico City, Mexico, August 12-15, 2024.

Ahadi, D. (2023). Confessions of a diasporic mind: Long-distance “nationalists” and transnational political activism among Iranians abroad (Panel organizer and Chair). Middle East Studies Association Conference (MESA). Montreal, Canada, November 2-5, 2023.

Ahadi, D. and Yu, Sherry S. (2023). Ethnic media research in the digital age: The case of Canada course. The Congress of the International Association of Communication and Media Research (IAMCR). Lyon, France, July 9-13, 2023. Awarded top paper in the Media and Diaspora Working Group.

Ahadi, D. (2023). Panel: Body, politics and representation in Iran's “Woman, Life, Freedom” uprising (Panel organizer and Chair). Canadian Communication Association Conference (CCA). Toronto, Canada, May 30-June 2, 2023.

Ahadi, D. (2022). Construction of belonging in North Vancouver’s Edgemont Village: Space and the everyday performance of whiteness. Canadian Communication Association Conference (CCA). Calgary, Canada, May 17-20, 2022.

Ahadi, D. (2021). Revisiting ethnic media in Canada: Policies, practices, and integration. Canadian Communication Association Conference (CCA). Edmonton, Canada, June 1-4, 2021.

Ahadi, D. (2021). Migration and the politics of fieldwork: Questioning communication studies. Roundtable at the Canadian Communication Association Conference (CCA). Edmonton, Canada, June 1-4, 2021.