Dr Amina Yaqin appointed as the Chair for the Centre for the Study of Pakistan, SOAS

4 December 2020

The SOAS South Asia Institute is delighted to announce the appointment of Dr Amina Yaqin as the Chair for the Centre for the Study of Pakistan , SOAS. Amina is a Reader in Urdu and Postcolonial Studies at SOAS. Her monograph Gender, Sexuality and Feminism in Pakistani women's poetry is forthcoming with Anthem Press in 2021. She is co-author with Peter Morey of Framing Muslims: Stereotyping and Representation after 911 (Harvard University Press, 2011) and has co-edited, Contesting Islamophobia: media, politics and culture (IB Tauris/Bloomsbury 2019); Muslims, Trust and Multiculturalism: New Directions (Palgrave MacMillan 2018); Culture, Diaspora and Modernity in Muslim Writing (Routledge 2012). Her research is interdisciplinary and engages with contemporary contexts of Muslim life as well as the politics of culture in Pakistan where she grew up.

Speaking about her appointment, Amina said: ‘It is an honour to be appointed as Chair of Centre for Pakistan, and I look forward to working closely with SSAI colleagues. The Centre for Pakistan at SOAS is one of its kind in the UK, a hub of academic activity, rigorous scholarship and community engagement. Our focus is on the complexity and richness of culture, society, and politics in Pakistan. We are enriched by our community of in house academics who work on Pakistan, distinguished Pakistani alum and our current students. I am very excited to work with them through this platform and going forward I hope to extend our networks as widely as possible, to enhance and build our partnerships with Pakistani universities, and to secure funding for the Centre’s long-term sustainability.’