Emily Khajavi-Thompson is a visual artist, writer, and educator from Long Beach, California. Before joining UC Santa Cruz as a Film and Digital Media PhD student, she worked with The Los Angeles Review of Books as the Summer Publishing Workshop Coordinator and Publab journal’s Faculty Art Advisor. She holds a BA in Film and Media Studies from University of California, Berkeley.
Internationally Certified Tutor Certificate (2018-current) College Reading & Learning Association.
Emily's current research focuses on the mythos surrounding the American frontier and filmic representations of place. Centering her practice around decolonial film, she is especially focused on collaborating with the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band and other California Indigenous communities.
She is excited to explore the intersection of the slow cinema and coming-of-age wilderness genres. Other areas of interest include experimental film, queer theory, Indigenous studies, decolonial film, place-based filmmaking, American studies, film/TV genres, American musicals, and archival footage.
Departmental Citation Award, UC Berkeley's Film and Media Department (2025).
Early Career Scholar “At Risk” Consortium of Humanities Centers and Institutes. Hosted by University of California, Berkeley (2024).
"ene piramsa: Mourning Slow Violence," 2025, German and Dutch German Symposium at University of California, Berkeley.
“Gender and Race in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints,” 2021, Anthropology of Magic, Witchcraft, and Religion, Supervisor: Dr. Ama Boakyewa, Long Beach City College.
“Wonder Woman: An Idealized Tale of Female Sexual Curiosity,” Honors Transfer Council of California, Research Conference; University of California, Irvine.
"Publab Issue VIII," Los Angeles Review of Books, August 2025 (Faculty Art Director, Advisor)
“Alex Creighton on Writing Habits and Community,” Art of Writing, June 2024. (Article). https://artofwriting.berkeley.edu/writing/alex-creighton-on-writing-habits-and-community/.
“Justice, a Photo Series,” Hastings Journal on Gender and Justice, Hastings Women's Law Journal. pg. 119. May 2024.
“Fluidity and Ambiguity in the Virgin River”, Hastings Journal on Gender and Justice. pg 153. May 2024. https://repository.uclawsf.edu/hwlj/vol35/iss2/11
Thompson, E., Nadiff, R., & Deraniyagala, S. “Sonali Deraniyagala and Wave”. Berkeley News Podcasts. 2024 (photograph)
“Publab Issue VI,” Los Angeles Review of Books, August 2023 (Advisor and Coordinator) https://larbpublab.org/issue-six-2023/.
Featured Photographer (May 2024) “Photography Feature: Emily Sunflower Thompson” Open Ceilings Magazine, p. cover art and 108-114.
Berkeley Fiction Review, Online weekly publication and bi-annual print publication, January 2021-January 2022 (Editor)
