Dr. Raika Khorshidian

2025: Philipp Schwartz Initiative: Bridge Fellowship Project: “Collective Traumas and Future Fantasies: AI, Art, and Social Media for Imagining New Narratives for Iran”

2024: KU Leuven Fund for Fair Open Access (with Birgit Mersmann, Cathrine Bublatzky, Julia Stenzel), Belgium. Project: Collective Traumas and Future Fantasies. The Power of Art for Socio-Political Transition in Iran (forthcoming 2026), Leuven University Press

2024: Mellon/SAR Academic Freedom Fellowship and Workshop (with Shirin Naef). Project: “Woman, Life, Liberty”: Scholars’ Narratives, Academic and Art Activism against the Iranian State’s Propaganda and Repression

2024: Qualification Support, granted by the STEP program, University of Bonn Project: Iranian Art Activism: Collective Traumas and Future Fantasies

2023: Funding granted for the implementation of a cultural project (Gewährung eines Zuschusses für die Durchführung eines Kulturprojektes), Kulturamt der Stadt Essen, Essen, Project: Kannst du mich hören? (Art Exhibition)

2023: Grant for Connect in Science-Workshop received from the STEP Program at the University Bonn for the International Hybrid Workshop Collective Traumas and Future Fantasies: The Power of (Visual) Art for Social and Political Transition in Iran, organized together with Prof. Dr. Birgit Mersmann, Institute of Art History, University of Bonn

2021: Georg Forster Research Fellowship for postdoctoral researchers, Germany Project: From National to Transnational Art: Displacement, Identity and Belonging in Iranian Contemporary Art

2021: German language course scholarship, Germany

2018: Ranked 2nd among PhD students in art research, University of Tarbiat Modares, Tehran, Iran

2017: Session’s Best Paper, International Conference on Arts, Social Sciences, History and Interdisciplinary Studies (ASSHIS-2017), Kyoto, Japan. Project: The Role of Bicultural Art Experience in Intercultural Education (Case study: 9-Year-Old Brazilian Children)

2013: Ranked 3rd in national concept design competition for “A Suggestion for Tehran”, Tehran, Iran, Project: Heartbeat of Tehran: Slow Life, Empathy and Dialogue

2012: Best paper, 1st International Festival of Fashion, Tehran, Iran

2012: Best Thesis Award, 2nd International Festival of Fashion, Tehran, Iran

2012: Bronze medal in National Competition of Designing Play and Toys, Sharif University of Technology, Project: Paper Theatre: One Thousand and One Nights

2012: Iran’s National Elites Foundation Scholarship for PhD

2012: Ranked 1st among 18 master students in industrial design, University of Tehran, Iran

2012: University Excellent Researcher Award, University of Tehran, Faculty of Fine Arts, Tehran

2011: Finalist, LG’s Conceptualife award for design students, Tehran, Iran, Project: Tree Kitchen

2011: Finalist of Index, Design to Improve Life Award, Copenhagen, Denmark, Project: Glow Guardian

2011: Ranked 2nd in the highly competitive nationwide MA entrance exam (among up to 60,000 students), Iran

2010: Ranked 1st among 26 bachelor students in industrial design at University of Tehran, Iran

2010: Ranked 2nd (Silver medal) in National Olympiad of Industrial Design, Iran

2009: Qualified as a member of Iran’s Elite National Foundation

2005: Ranked 3rd in the highly competitive nationwide BA entrance exam (among 81,427 students)