As part of her graduation exhibition, Extended Structures, curator Zehra Begüm Kışla conducted field research in the Mid-Hudson Valley region related to Silent University (SU)—a knowledge-exchange platform for forced migrants and asylum-seekers with professional backgrounds in education. Zeinab Musavi came from Kabul, Afghanistan, to the US through Germany in February 2022. Back home, Musavi worked in clinical psychology, both as an academic and a psychologist. Since October 2022, Musavi has been working with Kışla, within the framework of Silent University, to create a course opportunity for Musavi to work with Dari- and Farsi-speaking audiences. This initiative is still in progress.
In this public program, SU’s initiator, the artist Ahmet Öğüt, will discuss the organization’s journey since its beginnings in 2012. Zeinab Musavi and her partner Jafar Ahmadi, also an academic and psychologist, will introduce their educational initiative in Iran, where they worked for several years. Musavi and Ahmadi will also talk about their recent engagement with SU and the process of becoming SU lecturers.
