Professor Annabelle Sreberny: 5 September 1949 - 30 December 2022
It is with tremendous sadness that we have learnt of the untimely death of Professor Annabelle Sreberny, Emeritus Professor at the SOAS Centre for Global Media and Communications.
Professor Sreberny was one of the founding members and the first Chair of the Centre for Iranian Studies at SOAS. She had lived in Iran before, during and after the revolution of 1978 and out of that experience became interested in the role of alternative 'small' media, as well as the Internet as tools of social movements. Her work on Iran also focused on the nature of Iranian community and media formations in London, a work that was at the core of her interest in diasporic communities and transnational media. Her research had examined the role of the press as part of an emergent civil society in Iran, the particular role that women play as journalists and editors within the Iranian press environment, and the emergence of a dynamic Persian-language blogosphere.
In early November 2022, Professor Sreberny was a panel member at the SOAS Director's Lecture Series entitled Women, Life, Freedom: Achieving Political Change in Iran. Later in the same month, during the SOAS screening of Triumph, the documentary film made by Kaveh Abbasian, Professor Sreberny was a discussant looking at the revolutionary movement in Iran and the role of the media.
Amongst her many acclaimed publications are Blogistan: the Internet and Politics in Iran, co-authored with Gholam Khiabany; and Persian Service: The BBC and British Interests in Iran, co-authored with Massoumeh Torfeh.
We extend our most heartfelt condolences to her family and friends, especially to Sara and Leili Sreberny-Mohammadi.
We shall miss Annabelle's exuberance, kindness and intellectual vigour.
Narguess Farzad, Chair of Centre for Iranian Studies
Professor Annabelle Sreberny
5 September 1949 - 30 December 2022
روانش شاد، و یادش مانا و گرامی باد
Read Dina Matar's (Director, Centre of Global Media and Communication) tribute to Annabelle.
