Vahid Jadidi is a Ph.D. student in Sociology at the University of Notre Dame. He holds an M.A. in Sociology from the University of Tehran and a B.A. in Social Science–Social Research from Allameh Tabataba’i University. His research explores gender-based violence, social inequality, political sociology & social movements with a particular focus on their intersections with crime policy and social network analysis. He is especially interested in how legal processes and institutional practices shape disparities in the criminal justice system. Drawing on mixed methods including statistical modeling, qualitative inquiry and computational approaches, his work investigates how institutions, communities, and individuals negotiate questions of power, justice, and inequality.
Vahid’s academic trajectory has been shaped by a consistent concern with the cultural and political dimensions of violence and inequality. His current project focuses on how family-based immigration conditions shape immigrants’ vulnerability to coercion, particularly for women navigating legal dependency, bureaucratic surveillance and kinship-based expectations. In addition, by focusing on mechanisms such as gaslighting, legal threats, and financial constraints, his research demonstrates how family ties can serve as both sources of support and channels of domination under different policy environments. However, his prior research has studied judicial decision-making, restorative justice practices, gender and suicide in historical contexts, and racial disparities in sentencing. Vahid has published poetry and prose in Persian literature and has served as a cultural organizer and community-based project leader as well.