South Asia

My scholarly and personal interests have moved more and more in the direction of intersection of Religious Studies and South Asian Studies as disciplines. I recently published a book chapter “Islam in South Asia” for a volume The Religions of India, taught an independent study on Pakistan (spring 2018), and am about to begin one on Punjab (fall 2019), and am active member of the team that is seeking to revive and reimagine South Asian Studies program at Davidson College. I have also aided a former student in learning Urdu as part of her independent study. A course I am teaching this semester, Islamic City, covers the Mughal Empire which extended its reign over South Asia. 

For years, I have also been involved in advising and collaborating with Hast-o-Neest Institute of Traditional Arts and Studies in Lahore, Pakistan, actively engaged with the Islamic Research Institute in Islamabad and their journal Islamic Studies, and now almost a regular panelist at the Madison Conference.

Born and raised in Pakistan, I have lived in all the provinces of the country, have traveled extensively throughout the country (the mountains, the deserts, the ocean- twice from Karachi to Islamabad by road), have strong family roots and ties and an extended web of friends, and acquaintances, and over the years, growing and burgeoning academic and scholarly circles. Though since 2002 I live in the US, my travels to Pakistan have been regular and stay extensive – from 2002 till 2011 I visited Pakistan every summer and usually stayed for over 2 months or so.  This, of course, informs my scholarship of South Asia. 

For the Fall 2018 “India and Beyond” programming at Davidson or to learn more about the South Asian Studies Program, please see the South Asian Studies page on the College website.