Visiting Fellows & Researchers

Mr Obaidullah Baheer Oct-Dec 2024

Visiting Fellow

Obaidullah Bahir is Adjunct Lecturer at the American University in Kabul, currently Doctorand at The New School, New York, where he is conducting research on how the world might engage with Islamic groups (like the Taliban in Afghanistan) that come to power. He has published widely on transitional justice, civic engagement, democracy, and engagement with the Taliban. At the Centre, Obaidullah will be working on the impact of cultural codes on Taliban policies, if they are amenable to change, and what possible ways are available to engage with them.

Twitter/X: @ObaidullaBaheer    

Mr Sang Hnin Lian May-Aug 2024

Charles Wallace Burma/Myanmar Trust Fellow 2023-24 

Sang Hnin Lian has studied politics (in India) and international relations (in Thailand) and is currently based in Myanmar. During his Fellowship at the Centre, Lian will be working on policy-oriented interventions on the needs of marginalised Burmese students in countries in South Asia, with a particular focus on improving their experience of being expatriates in neighbouring countries. 

Dr Aisha Jalil Jan-Apr 2024

Charles Wallace Pakistan Trust Fellow 2023-24

Dr Aisha Jalil is Associate Professor in the School of Integrated Social Sciences, University of Lahore. A sociologist by training, Aisha's doctoral research was on patient satisfaction in public clinics in Lahore. Whilst at the Centre as Charles Wallace Pakistan Trust Visiting Fellow, she will work on the violation of the constitutional rights of inheritance and legal protection of women against domestic violence in Pakistan.

Twitter/X: DrAishaJalilH 

Dr Shafi Mostofa Jan-Apr 2024

Charles Wallace Bangladesh Trust Fellow 2023-24

Dr Shafi M. Mostofa is Associate Professor in the Department of World Religions and Culture, University of Dhaka. A theologian and security studies scholar with an interest in political Islam, authoritarianism, modern South Asian history & politics, Shafi's doctoral dissertation was on Islamic militancy in Bangladesh (2009-19). During his stay at the Centre as Charles Wallace Bangladesh Trust Visiting Fellow, he will work on violent extremism and counter-measures in Bangladesh, focusing especially on the newly-formed (in 2023) Jama'atul Ansar fil Hindal Sharqiya militant-extemist group. 

Twitter/X: @ShafiMostofa

Dr Umair Javed Jun-Dec 2023

British Academy Visiting Fellow 

Dr Umair Javed is Assistant Professor of Politics & Sociology at Lahore University of Management Sciences. An LSE alumnus (PhD 2018), Umair's research interests are in political economy, socio-economic informality, and urban public life in South Asia. During his Visitorship at the Centre, Umair will be working on his book manuscript on the politics & practices of accumulation, and labour relations in Pakistan's informal economy focusing specifically on wholesale bazaars. 

Twitter/X: @umairjav 

Professor Aye Mar Win Jun-Sep 2023

Charles Wallace Burma/Myanmar Trust Fellow 2022-23

Aye Mar Win is Professor of Law at Nay Pyi Taw State Academy. Her doctoral dissertation was on legal protection of animals in Myanmar. During her Fellowship at LSE, Aye Mar will work on illegal/unfair import trade commodities and its impact on citizens, examining legal loopholes and exploring legal provisions to counter these practices.

Dr Barkat Shah Kakar Jan-Apr 2023

Charles Wallace Pakistan Trust Fellow 2022-23

Dr Barkat Shah Kakar is Associate Professor at the University of Balochistan, Quetta. His research interests are in Pashtun traditions and cultures, in which he has published several articles in Pashto and Urdu, alongside writing on wider issues like peace, gender justice & human rights in Balochistan. During his Fellowship at the Centre, Barkat will work on images & stereotypes of Pashtuns in state narratives & educational materials in post-Independence Pakistan, who constitute 50% of Afghanistan and 15% of Pakistan respectively. 

Dr Ratan Kumar Roy Jan-Apr 2023

Charles Wallace Bangladesh Trust Fellow 2022-23

Dr Ratan Kumar Roy is Assistant Professor at BRAC University, Dhaka, and Coordinator, International Research Centre at SIMEC Institute of Technology, Bangladesh. Trained in anthropology & sociology, he has been Research Fellow at the Centre for Culture, Media & Governance, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi (India), and a TV journalist in Bangladesh. He is the author of Television in Bangladesh: News and Audiences (2020), and more recently, co-editor (with Biswajit Das) of Korean Wave in South Asia: Transcultural Flow, Fandom and Identity (2022). At the Centre, Ratan will be working on digitalisation, online activism and civic politics in contemporary Bangladesh. 

Twitter: @RatanSanjib

Dr Antonio Giustozzi 2022-24

Visiting Fellow

Dr Antonio Giustozzi, an LSE alumnus, is an independent researcher & analyst with a special interest in conflicts, war, security & strategic issues in Afghanistan, and the region. He has published extensively on the subject, including The Army of Afghanistan: A Political History of a Fragile Institution (2016), The Islamic State in Khorasan: Afghanistan, Pakistan & the New Central Asian Jihad  (2018, 2022) and The Taliban at War: 2001-2021 (2019, 2022). He speaks regularly to the media, publishes in periodicals on these subjects & related issues; in the past, he has worked as a Consultant for the European Union Special Representative (EUSR) in Kabul, for NATO and for various EU member states. During his Fellowship at the Centre, Antonio will be working on jihadism in the subcontinent, and on the transition from jihadism to government in Afghanistan.

Twitter: @AntonioGiustoz2 

Dr Md. Shafiqul Islam Jan - Mar 2020

Charles Wallace Bangladesh Trust Fellow 2019-20

Md. Shafiqul Islam is currently Associate Professor and Head, Department of Environmental Science, State University of Bangladesh, Dhaka. He completed his PhD in Disaster Management from the University of Dhaka in 2019, focusing on community resilience, coping mechanisms, adaptation strategies, and sustainable approaches of drought management in the Barind Tract in Bangladesh, and has participated and presented his research findings widely, and has contributed UN Sustainable Development Report 2016.

During his Visitorship at the Centre, Shafiqul will conduct research on the social and ecological resilience of fisher folk to coastal disasters in Bangladesh.

Dr Kishwar Munir  Jan-Mar 2020

Charles Wallace Pakistan Trust Fellow 2019-20

Kishwar Munir holds a PhD in Political Science from Punjab University, Pakistan, focusing on electoral politics and voting behaviour. She is currently Assistant Professor at the School of Integrated Social Science & Research Fellow at the Centre for Security Strategy and Policy Research at the University of Lahore. She has been a Visiting Fellow at The Stimson Center, Washington DC (July 2017), and has recently co-authored (with Iram Khalid) an article on judicial activism in Pakistan in South Asian Studies. Kishwar’s research interests include CPEC, terrorism, insurgency, regional and global security, and domestic politics in Pakistan. At the LSE South Asia Centre, Kishwar will be working on ‘Water Issues between Pakistan and India: Implications for Regional Security and Peace Process’. 

Dr Edward Anderson 2019-21

Visiting Fellow

Edward works on the contemporary history and politics of India and its diaspora. From 2015-19 he was Smuts Research Fellow in Commonwealth Studies at the Centre of South Asian Studies, Cambridge, and a Postdoctoral Affiliate at Trinity College, Cambridge. He completed his PhD from the University of Cambridge, and his Masters from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.  His research explores Indian politics and contemporary history, diasporas and migration, social media and the internet, multiculturalism, and religious and ethnic nationalism. He has published in Modern Asian Studies, South Asian Studies, and Contemporary South Asia, and is co-editor (with Arkotong Longkumer) of Neo-Hindutva: Evolving Forms, Spaces, and Expressions of Hindu Nationalism (2020).

Ms Frauke Tom H Mennes May-Jun 2019 

Visiting Doctoral Research Scholar

Frauke’s research investigates how local democratic politics shape everyday life in a village in Rayalaseema, India. Located in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, the region is marked by a violent history of what is locally termed ‘factionism’, where different higher caste groups violently vied for village supremacy in earlier times. Using ethnographic fieldwork, she attempts to understand how former factionist violence informs everyday present sociality in the village, as well as how factionist networks have shaped and continue to modalities of state presence and wider political processes. Frauke is registered for a doctoral program in the Department of Anthropology, University of Copenhagen.

Dr Hanako Nagata 2018-19

Visiting Fellow

Dr Nagata holds a PhD in the Social Sciences from the Ochanomizu University, Japan with a focus on South Asian economics and gender studies, and a specialism in the ready-made garment industry and related gender issues in Bangladesh. In 2014, she published Bangladeshi Industrialization and Gender: The International Transfers of Japanese Garment Corporations (in Japanese), based on extensive fieldwork in Dhaka (Bangladesh). She is a member of the International Association for Feminist Economics (IAFFE), and regularly presents papers at international conferences. Since 2014, she is Associate Professor at the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Ibaraki University, Japan.

During her Visitorship at the Centre, Dr Nagata will conduct research on the increasing ‘feminisation’ of the Labour Force, focusing on the women workers in the ready-made garment industry in Dhaka and Kolkata, especially concentrating on the theoretical paradigms surrounding this theme, and present her work to a wider audience in the United Kingdom.

Dr Tamara Relis 2016-18

Visiting Fellow 

Dr. Relis is a Research Fellow in the LSE South Asia Centre. She is also a Barrister & Solicitor (UK) and a New York Attorney. Dr. Relis is currently working on a new book project, examining Human Rights, Access to Justice and Conflict Resolution involving Tibetan refugees in India, Nepal and Bhutan. She was awarded a British Academy / Leverhulme SRG grant to advance this project.

Earlier, Dr. Relis was a Research Fellow in the LSE law department, working on her 2nd book entitled: The Purchase of Human Rights: Standards and Legal Pluralism in the Global South (OUP, forthcoming). The manuscript is based on Dr. Relis' postdoctoral research in the LSE law department (British Academy & ESRC). She conducted fieldwork in 8 states of India, focusing on legal and lay actors' experiences in state courts, lok adalats and non-state justice mechanisms (panchayats, mahila panchayats, nari adalats ) processing human rights violation cases of violence against women.

Additionally, Dr. Relis was a professor of law, teaching human rights law, non-state justice and legal pluralism, and evidence in New York (Touro Law Centre). She was also a postdoctoral research fellow at Columbia University Law School in New York.

Dr Rizwan Naseer 2017-18

Visiting Fellow

Dr Naseer completed his PhD in International Relations from Jilin University, China in 2013, and is Assistant Professor of International Relations at the COMSATS Institute of Information Technology in Islamabad. 

Dr Naseer is currently working on a proposed book entitled South Asia’s Nuclear Security in the Global Nuclear Order which examines nuclear security in Pakistan and India, and the opportunity this presents for diplomacy and cooperation in the region.

Dr Musarat Amin 2017-18

Visiting Fellow

Dr Amin completed her PhD in International Politics from Jilin University China in 2013 and is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Defence and Diplomatic Studies (DDS) at Fatima Jinnah Women University in Rawalpindi. She has also been serving as a faculty member at the department of Peace and Conflict Studies at National Defence University (NDU) in Islamabad. She often appears on national media as current affairs analyst.

Dr Amin is currently doing post-doctoral research on Pakistan’s counter-terrorism strategy and impediments to the successful implementation of the National Action Plan at the South Asia Centre. Her research also includes analysis of softer approaches to mitigating terrorism through deradicalisation and peace education.

Dr Laura Zimmermann 2016

Visiting Fellow

Dr Zimmermann holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Michigan (2014) and a B.A. in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) from the University of Oxford (2008). Since August 2014, she is an assistant professor at the University of Georgia, United States with a joint position in Economics and International Affairs (the university’s political science department for all political scientists not working on the US). Her research lies at the intersection of political science and economics in the areas of political economy, development economics and comparative politics. She has presented her work widely at discipline-specific and interdisciplinary conferences and has contributed to established blogs like Ideas for India and World Bank Development Impact.