In her role as Communications Manager, Yasaman (Yasi) Naraghi creates and implements the Simpson Center’s communication plan, including development and production of digital communications, print publicity, and other promotional materials supporting many programs and events each year, including courses, lectures, meetings, and conferences.

Yasi received her Ph.D. in Comparative Literature (Theory and Criticism) from the University of Washington in 2018. Titled A Natural History of Genius: Aesthetics, Ethics, and Totalitarianism, her project thinks through the concept of the genius as an ambivalent figure that is revised in the late 18th to denote a singular man; arguing that this re-conceptualization of genius sets up systems of knowledge whose logic inevitably promotes a movement towards nationalism and further into totalitarianism. She is currently expanding this project with a particular focus on how genius in this manner functions in the rise of contemporary far-right movements worldwide. Prior to joining the Simpson Center, Yasi was a faculty member at Gonzaga University’s English Department, where she taught world and transnational literature.