Anaheed Mobaraki, Pauli Murray ‘21
From the camera to paper: art and blm
Sam Heimowitz.
Anaheed Mobaraki, a native of the great state of Maryland, is a senior political science major in Pauli Murray. This past summer, she worked at the ACLU in Richmond, Virginia, witnessing the rich culture and protest art associated with the Black Lives Matter movement firsthand. Subsequently, she enrolled in Professor Maria Hierro’s political science seminar on political protests, learning not only about domestic protests and social movements, but also about protests abroad, like the various protests in Hong Kong. Anaheed hopes to take much of what she learned in that class—the foundational aspects and shared criterion protest movements must have in order to have a successful protest, the organizational and strategic tactics employed in forming a social movement, and the broader theory of movements in general—and apply it to her future work as a public defender post-law school.
Anaheed’s research was first and foremost inspired by her time spent in Richmond and led her to question how the protest art that she saw played a role in the formation and success of Richmond’s protests. Additionally, she was fascinated by the varying forms of art as well: there was digital art, more standard art, and graffiti—she took some photos herself of the artwork, including a photo of the infamous Robert E. Lee statue that circulated across various news agencies. Because she was able to experience the art in real time, and was able to take some of the photos herself, she got to make the research experience intensely personal. Undoubtedly, her writing focuses on artwork, which is a very visual subject, but exploring it through the written word was definitely a very eye-opening and interesting process that she was glad she could experience.
Starting her sophomore year, she began volunteering with the Yale Undergraduate Prison Project (YUPP), tutoring students at a correctional facility just about a 30 minute drive from Yale. At the time, she did not know too much about the criminal justice system. However, after immersing herself directly in criminal justice work, she was able to break down all of the barriers, biases, and stereotypes she ever had about the system. This experience served as a launchpad for her; she became interested in police and prison abolition, abolition literature, and criminal justice reform. Despite her passion for teaching, the COVID-19 pandemic has significantly thwarted in-person tutoring opportunities, yet Anaheed found a way to continue her criminal justice work by joining an organization entitled Mourning Our Losses. Born during the pandemic, this organization memorializes all the lives lost to coronavirus in American jails, prisons, and correctional facilities. She has been spending her time writing memorials and has been tracking and researching all of the names across five different states, working to humanize a population that has been severely neglected yet brought to life during the pandemic in America.
As a first-generation college student, coming to Yale and being thrown into the intimidating academic environment was frightening. Yet, Anaheed cannot stress enough the importance of reaching out to your personal librarian. Her first semester four years ago, she saw the email about the personal librarian service, reached out, learned how to find articles and manage citation resources through Zotero—to this day, she is still shocked that some of her friends still do citations by hand. Lastly, working through trial and error is sometimes the best way to approach research: start broad, but don’t expect to end broad. Too broad is overwhelming, and too narrow is simply too difficult; stay level-headed and find the happy medium, working with your professor throughout the process. If you stay confident, try your best, and stay dedicated, you’re bound to get very far—and grow in the process, too.