I am a cultural anthropologist and Visiting Professor at Freie Universität Berlin. My broader work pursues critical notions of public intimacy, post-migrant be/longing and queer temporalities – a research practice that is best situated across the study of Islamic life-worlds, queer and affect theory. I am the author of Queer Companions: Religion, Public Intimacy and Saintly Affects in Pakistan (Duke UP 2022, winner of the 2023 Ruth Benedict Prize and 2024 Bloomsbury Pakistan Prize) and the editor of Pakistan Desires: Queer Futures Elsewhere (Duke UP 2023). I teach on religion, migration, and love, with expertise in queer theory and contemporary South Asia. Born and raised in Karachi, Pakistan, I regard myself as a Berliner-by-love.
photo by Schokofeh Kamiz