Introduction What is Orientalism? This questions is often posed by the students of postcolonial studies. Published in 1978, Edward Said's Orientalism is easily one of the most influential academic books of 20th century. Even now, decades after its first publication, [...]
In one of his interviews, while speaking on the relevance of postcolonial studies, Dr. Raja said that the postcolonial world can understand their conflicts and issues better by reading and discussing postcolonial literatures. I endorse this point of view because [...]
I recently came across this publishing initiative on instagram. Since I found their project so fascinating, I requested the founders for more information so that I could lend them my support and introduce them to my readers. Launched [...]
Life in Academia This life in academia is actually my second career. I am a combat veteran who came to academic life after spending most of my youth in the Pakistan army. In the process I also made the [...]
About ten years ago, my former department went through a collective soul-searching in the process of defining our departmental mission. There were two competing visions of literary studies that became prominently mobilized during our faculty meetings and faculty retreats: one [...]
(Note: This is a modified version of an article published in Friday Times, Lahore) We often hear, in public and private conversations, that Pakistani culture and politics will become better with the increase in access to education. This is nothing [...]
(This is an excerpt from the conclusion of my recent book: ISIS: Ideology, Symbolics and Counter Narratives.) There are some brilliantly researched books on ISIS, I consulted most of them, but in this brief volume I have attempted to answer [...]
The World We Inhabit and the Need for Change In one of his works, Emmanuel Levinas poses a set of important ethical questions about the nature of our interactions with our others: When others enter, each of them external to [...]
I have noticed that I am always at a loss when someone asks me: What do you mean by postcolonialism? The answer, invariably always, involves a convoluted explanation of Postcolonialism as a field of study. After I tell someone, [...]