Ali Osman Qasmi, Sara Malkani, Ahmed Waqas Waheed (Rangoonwalla Visiting Fellows)
Sara Malkani is an advocate of the High Courts of Pakistan with over 12 years experience practicing law. She has experience in criminal litigation, family law, labor law and international human rights law. Sara actively pursues human rights cases and has an extensive pro bono practice. She obtained the first ever conviction for domestic violence in Pakistan which was upheld on appeal. She also represented transgender persons denied healthcare in public hospitals and obtained court orders requiring that transgender persons be treated without discrimination. The Sindh High Court has appointed her as amicus curiae in a number of matters involving implementation of laws for the protection of women and children. As a legal adviser to the international organization, Center for Reproductive Rights, she has engaged in advocacy before United Nations treaty bodies and special procedures. Sara has a Juris Doctor from the University of Michigan Law School at Ann Arbor and a B.A. with high honours from Princeton University.
Born and raised in Lahore, Ali Usman Qasmi is a historian of modern South Asia and Islamic reform movements. He has published extensively in his area of expertise, including three monographs and three edited volumes. His most recent monograph is titled, Qaum, Mulk, Sultanat: Citizenship and National Belonging in Pakistan (Stanford University Press, 2023). Since 2012, Qasmi has been teaching history at the LUMS University’s School of Humanities and Social Sciences.
Dr. Ahmed Waqas Waheed is Executive Director of ROADS Initiative, a knowledge sharing platform, and an Assistant Professor in the department of Government and Public Policy, National University of Sciences and Technology, Islamabad, Pakistan. He is also an honorary research fellow at the School of Policy and Global Studies, City, University of London. He holds a MA in International Relations from the University of Sussex and a PhD in Political Science from the School of Politics and International Relations, Queen Mary, University of London. He is the author of two books: The Wrong Ally: Pakistan’s State Sovereignty under US Dependence, published by Peter Lang and Constructing ‘Pakistan’ through Knowledge Production in International Relations and Area Studies published by Palgrave Macmillan.
Matthew Nelson (PhD Columbia) is a Professor of Politics and Head of Department (Politics and International Studies) at SOAS University of London. His research focuses on the politics of South Asia, having held faculty positions at Bates College (ME), Yale University (CT), and the University of Melbourne (Australia) as well as Residential Fellowships at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton (NJ), the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington (DC), and the Zentrum für Interdisziplinäre Forschung (ZiF) in Germany
