A Country Between:
An Iranian American Journey

By Kyana Moghadam, 2012
Found on acountrybetween.com

A Country Between is a collection of life history interviews conducted with Iranian Americans, explored and retold through film, creative writing, audio, and visual art. It is about curiosity, memory, imagination, and exploring the different ways in which history can be understood. It is, also, about a journey. A journey that began with a single connection between two family members—that traveled from a town in Colorado, to the streets of Washington, D.C., and New York City, to the mountain villages in northern Tajikistan, and the neighborhoods of Tehran—and grew to include many more strangers, friends, and family members.

Kyana Moghadam is an oral historian, writer, and multimedia producer located in the San Francisco Bay area. Originally from Emeryville, California, she graduated in 2009 from Sarah Lawrence College in New York, with a BA in writing and cultural anthropology.  In 2014, she received her MA in Oral History from Columbia University, where she produced and archived a multimedia collection of oral histories with Iranian American immigrant families. While working on A Country Between, Kyana received multiple arts grants and scholarships—one of which took her to Dushanbe, Tajikistan to continue with her work.

In the last decade Kyana has worked as a writer and editor with numerous publications. Her most recent projects have been with Project Bly, Rick Steves’ Europe, and Moon Travel Guides. Kyana’s work as a videographer has given her the chance to work with a diverse group of clients—from global nonprofits to musicians, and family owned companies.

As an oral historian, she is honored to have conducted interviews, transcribed and edited oral history transcripts, produced and published audio and video clips, and archived invaluable oral history narratives with The 1947 Partition Archive, The Fortune Society in Queens, NY, Columbia Universities’ Center for Oral History Rule of Law Guantanamo Bay Oral History Project and WKCR/Center for Jazz Studies Oral History Project. She currently works as an independent oral historian and producer, working with individuals, families, community projects, and non-profit organizations.