Presenters and graduate students showcased locally developed apps and projects that addressed and came up with solutions for multiple matters in the fields of education at different levels. By strengthening digital and media literacy and ethical AI awareness within social sciences, this event positioned Pakistan Studies within the broader global discourse on technology.

Photo of Badshahi Mosque Complex by Robert Nichols

AIPS was busy this past year. As noted in the Newsletter, we signed 13 MOUs with universities across Pakistan. We also welcomed Dr. Aalia Sohail Khan as the new Director of the AIPS Islamabad Office and hosted our fourth Introduction to Urdu Language & Culture online course. 

Members and Trustees conducted research across the world; facilitated workshops and conferences in Pakistan; and published many books and journal articles. 

Congratulations to all for a successful 2025, and please continue sending us your highlights as we compile next year’s newsletter!

Memorializing the Nation-State: Minar-e-Pakistan between Memory and History
Hashim Ali

Border Bureaucracy and Discourses: Demarcation and Surveillance of the Punjab Border in the Wake of 1947 Partition
Ilyas Chattha

Seventy-five Years of Partition: Rupture and Connectivity: India-Pakistan Cricketing Relations
Ali Khan

Nation and Region in the Post-Partition Remaking of the Indus River Basin
David Gilmartin

The Lahore-Amritsar Borderland and Indo-Pakistan Relations during the Early Postcolonial Period
Ian Talbot

The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor: the Politics of Development
Yunas Samad

Partition, Passport and the Documentary Life of Belonging
Haimanti Roy

Review of Christopher Candland, The Islamic Welfare State: Muslim Charity, Human Security, and Government Legitimacy in Pakistan
Salwa Tareen

Review of Sanaa Alimia, Refugee Cities: How Afghans Changed Urban Pakistan
Zehra Hashmi

Review of Esha Niyogi De, Women’s Transborder Cinema: Authorship, Stardom, and Filmic Labor in South Asia
Shahnaz Rouse

As noted by the AIPS Book Prize Committee, this book “explores the life of Afghan refugees in Pakistan with a specific focus upon their contributions to the development of Karachi and Peshawar. The work, both a history and eight-year ethnographic study, outlines how waves of Afghan refugee fled to Pakistan to escape violence. As they settled into the peripheries of urban centers, they created their own communities and with their labor contributed greatly to the overall development of Pakistan’s cities. The extent of their contributions and the precarity of their existence within Pakistan is explored in detail.”

They went on to remark that “Alimia’s scholarship is excellent. The book is well-written and easy to read. It draws upon hundreds of interviews and extensive archival research.”

*This award is funded by AIPS unrestricted funds and is not supported by United States federal grant funds.

Honorable Mentions (equally ranked)

Ijlal Naqvi, Access to Power: Electricity and the Infrastructural State in Pakistan (Oxford University Press, 2022)

Omer Aijazi, Atmospheric Violence: Disaster and Repair in Kashmir (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2024)

Nadia Agha, Kinship, Patriarchal Structure and Women’s Bargaining with Patriarchy in Rural Sindh, Pakistan (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021)

We invite scholars and translators of Popular Urdu literature and art—broadly defined as texts intended to be read by mass audiences—to contribute to a special issue, “Ek Dost Kay Naam: Women’s Writings and Popular Literary Cultures in Urdu.”

Women’s Urdu writings, particularly women’s popular literature, remains woefully understudied in Pakistan. Additionally, most of this critical scholarship often tends to focus on feminist themes in women’s writings (Alvi et al.; Sultana; Ahmed; Buksh; Shah; Petievich; Yaqin). This focus, however, often ignores the critical influence of women’s writings on mainstream popular culture as well as in fashioning mass literary sensibilities in Pakistan. Women’s popular Urdu literary voices have played a pivotal role in shaping Pakistani women’s experiences and their ideas around identity, culture, as well as feminism, and their roles in both private and public sphere.

With this special issue, our goal is to invite scholarly reflections on issues and literary sensibilities espoused through popular literature. Hence, this issue is an attempt at broadening scholarly space for the multiplicity of orientations, opinions, and experiences in women’s Urdu writings and their ideological positionalities in Pakistan. We invite contributors to explore a wide range of genres, including but not limited to literary arts,visual arts, and folk art—all crafted by and for women.

Possible topics include, but are not limited to:
• Historical evolution of women’s literature in Urdu
• Impact of women’s writings on Urdu literary tradition
• Influence of Women’s Urdu literature on popular culture in Pakistan
• Urdu literary movements and their impact on women’s writings
• Representation of women in popular Urdu literature
• Feminist perspectives in popular Urdu literature
• Intersectionality in women’s literature—exploring themes of class, religion, nationalism,
caste, and ethnicity etc.
• Role of Urdu literature in shaping sexualities and gender identities
• Popular Urdu literature and its influence on societal perceptions of women
• Comparative analyses of women’s literature across different periods
• Challenges faced by women writers in the Urdu literary landscape
• Confluence of Urdu language and visual arts
• Contemporary trends and emerging voices in women’s popular literature

Submission Process and Timeline
May 30: Submit an abstract of 250-300 words to Pop.Urdu.Lit@gmail.com
June 15: Notification of acceptance or rejection.
October 1: Complete papers due. Guidelines will be provided upon abstract acceptance.

For questions about this Call for Papers or the submission process, please contact:
Pop.Urdu.Lit@gmail.com

AIPS and the Suhail Zaheer Lari Memorial Fellowship Fund support scholars to conduct research on Sindh through our Fellowships and Short-Term Research Grants. The recipients should be pre-doctoral or post-doctoral scholars of South Asia and members of AIPS. Interested individuals can apply for this opportunity through an AIPS Fellowship (before 2/1/22) or AIPS Short-Term Research Grant (before 2/15/22).

Suhail Zaheer Lari (1936-2020) was a Pakistani historian and author who focused on research and documentation of the history of the Sindh region in Southern Pakistan. His family established this fellowship in his memory. The Suhail Zaheer Lari Memorial Fellowship Fund will assist in broadening the study of Sindh by providing resources to scholars who study the region.

For any questions about this opportunity or how to donate to AIPS, please contact aips@pakistanstudies-aips.org