Profile

I joined Newcastle University Business School in September 2018. My research is focused on use of theatre-based interventions and their outcomes, specifically those concerned with identity construction of organisation members in contemporary organisations. I am also interested in exploring gender and gendered identities in the context of work and organisation, in particular, through the lens of feminist studies. 

I have been involved in teaching at undergraduate and postgraduate levels in Organisation Studies, Organisational Behaviour and Cross Cultural Management in different institutions such as University of Wollongong and University of New South Wales in Australia, and Northumbria University since moving to the UK.

Education

• PhD in Management, Macquarie Graduate School of Management, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia
• M.Sc. in Management and Economics of Innovation, Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden
• B.Sc. in Industrial & Systems Engineering, Sharif University of Technology (SUT), Tehran, Iran

Academic Leadership:

• Co-Director of Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) since 2025
• Degree Programme Director - MSc Management since 2024
• PGR Convenor for the Leadership, Work and Organisation group, Newcastle University Business School (2021-2025)
• Deputy Director of PGR at the Business School (2023-2025)

Professional Membership

• Fellowship of The Higher Education Academy

I am interested in research related to:

• Gender, Work and Organisation: Gendered work in the neoliberal era, emergence of neoliberal feminism and postfeminism and their implications for working women’s self-construction
• EDI and Justice: Intersectional perspectives into workplace inequalities
• Self and Identity: Investigating identity regulation and identity work in and around organisations
• Dramaturgy: dramaturgical framing of social life in organisational settings, frame analysis, artistic interventions in organisations
• Management Learning and Development: Use of art-based methods such as theatre in management training and development and their implications for construction of managerial identities
• PGR Research Culture and Academic Identity: Community building with and for doctoral students in the context of the neoliberal universities (with a focus on business schools), PGR research culture and academic identities and careers

Board membership:

• Feminist Media Reviews Editor – Feminism and Organization
• Associate Editor – Culture and Organization

PhD Supervision

I am interested in supervising qualitative projects with a critical approach to organisation and management, related to:

• gender, feminism, identity and work & organisation
• art-based methods in management training and development
• narrative, drama and theatre in and around organisations

Current PhD students

•  Alanoud Naif. Thesis title: “Fundraising and the Discourse of Elite Philanthropy in U.S. Higher Education".
• Xiaoxuan Yu. Thesis title: Chinese Women Leaders and Gendered Performances of Leadership.
• Rana Aljallal. Thesis title: Middle-Eastern Mothers' Career Progression

Current Projects:

• Developing an Inclusive Future for Management Studies: Feminist Academic Community-Building with Doctoral Students and Early Career Researchers. Funder: Society for the Advancement of Management Studies (SAMS). Lead investigator. With Prof Alison Pullen (Macquarie University) and Dr Alexia Panayiotou (University of Cyprus). 2024-2027
• Developing the Management Studies Community through Enhancement of Business and Management Doctoral Students' Research Culture. Society for the Advancement of Management Studies (SAMS). Lead investigator. With Newcastle University colleagues Prof Susan Kirk, Prof Tracy Scurry, Prof David Lain, and Dr Marti Lopez-Andreu.2023-2026
• The Second Newcastle University Inclusivity Game Jam: An innovative student-led event exploring gender and intersectionality through creative forms. Newcastle University EDI Fund. Co-Investigator. With Dr Ken Pierce (Newcastle University) as Lead. 2024-2025

Previous Projects:

• Inclusivity Game Jam: An Experimental Student-focused Workshop Facilitating Collective Design of Games about Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI). Funded by the Catherine Cookson Foundation. Leader investigator, in collaboration with Dr Ken Pierce. 2023-2024
• AIRAANZ: Symposia Funding. Funded by the Association of Industrial Relations Academics in Australia and New Zealand. Co-investigator with Dr Mahan Poorhosseinzadeh and Dr Parth Patel (Australian Institute of Business), Prof Christine Naschberger (Audiencia Business School), and Dr Maranda Ridgway (Nottingham Business School).
• Enhancing the PGR Culture at the Business School. Funded by Newcastle University's Research Culture Fund. Lead Investigator, with Prof David Lain, Prof Tracy Scurry and Prof Susan Kirk.

BUS3033- Critical Organisation Studies

BUS2019- Understanding Work and Organisations

BUS2021- Work and Organisation 

NBS8326- Managing Organisations and People

• Articles

  • Munro I, Contu A, Dallyn S, Edward P, Frandsen A-C, Hoskin K, Hughes K, Go Jefferies J, Land C, Marx U, Tweedie J, Ul-Haq S, Zaeemdar S. Reading as Communal Luxury: On the formation of a Resistant Subject Group. Management Learning 2025, epub ahead of print.
  • Zaeemdar S. Postfeminist technologies of authenticity: Examining the construction of authentic feminine selves in the neoliberal workplace. Organization 2025, 32(4), 527-546.
  • Zabrodska K, Ellwood C, Zaeemdar S, Mudrak J. Workplace Bullying as Sensemaking: An Analysis of Target and Actor Perspectives on Initial Hostile Interactions. Culture and Organization 2016, 22(2), 136-157.

• Book Chapters

  • Pagan V, Zaeemdar S. Performing leadership for radical change: Women’s embodied activism through theatre. In: Thompson, RJ; Topuzova, L, ed. Embodied Somatic Leadership for Peacebuilding and Protest: Women’s Counteroffensive to Violence and Injustice. Emerald Publishing Limited, 2024.
  • Zaeemdar S. Coaching as a Liminal Space: Exploring Use of Theatre in Management Training and Development. In: Black, K; Warhurst, R; Corlett, S, ed. Identity as a Foundation for Human Resource Development. New York: Routledge, 2017, pp.179-192.

• Conference Proceedings (inc. Abstracts)

  • Pierce KG, Zaeemdar S. The Inclusivity Game Jam: Exploring Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) through Two Creative Forms. In: ICGJ '24: Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Game Jams, Hackathons and Game Creation Events. 2024, Copenhagen, Denmark: ACM.
  • Watson J, Zaeemdar S, Lopes A, Pagan V. Exploring Alternative Forms of Social Care Delivery in Tackling Structural Gender Inequalities. In: Gender, Work and Organisation Conference. 2023, Stellenbosch, South Africa: GWO.
  • Zaeemdar S. Exploring Women's Work Life Narratives in Search of Authentic Selves. In: Best Paper at the 78th Academy of Management Annual Meeting. 2018, Chicago. In Preparation.
  • Zaeemdar S. Dramatic Persuasion in Theater-based Interventions . In: 9th International Art of Management & Organization Conference. 2018, Brighton, UK: Art of Management & Organization.
  • Zaeemdar S. The Pursuit of a Good Life: Work Life Narratives of Authenticity. In: The 33rd European Group for Organization Studies (EGOS) Colloquium. 2017, Copenhagen, Denmark: European Group for Organizational Studies.
  • Forbes-Simpson K, Zaeemdar S, Black K, Warhurst R. Experiments with Visual Methods in Understanding Entrepreneurship Education. In: 12th Annual International Ethnography Symposium: Politics and Ethnography in an Age of Uncertainty. 2017, Manchester, UK.
  • Zaeemdar S. Exploring Imaginaries of Authenticity: Seeking Authentic Selves in Contemporary Organisational Life. In: British Academy of Management. 2016, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.