About Me
I am an American-Bangladeshi socio-cultural anthropologist based in Milwaukee,
Wisconsin and I write about how societies and cultures exist today in a complex and
intricate web of hegemonic relations of Western centers and its margins in a globalized
world system. I use anthropological theories to transform the world and liberate our
collective life from the dominance of direct and indirect colonial and imperial power.
I studied MS in anthropology (focusing on Rohingya refugees) at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. I am a former associate professor at the Jahangirnagar University, Bangladesh, and I worked on South Asian history, society, and culture for the last 20 years. My research interests and ethnographic writings revolve around a wide range of topics in South Asia, Bengal, and Bangladesh studies, such as Bangla Language, Literature and Culture, Gender-based Violence; Rohingya Refugee; Ethnic Conflict; Indigeneity; Transborder issues, Policy and Humanitarian Intervention, Partition of British-India and Recurring Crisis in Bangladesh-India-Myanmar borders. Besides publishing bi-lingual academic papers, I write short stories, poems, and op-eds in print and online publishing outlets, and have two published books.
I am also the principal of Akkhor Bangla School, a Wisconsin-Based Heritage Language Community School established in 2015. I am the Bangla language representative at the Coalition of Community-Based Language Schools. I am one of the coordinators of the Friends of Bangla School (FOBS), an alliance consisting of 16 Bangla Schools that organizes the annual Milan Mela, an assembly of Bangla Schools across the country. I have completed an HL workshop in 2024 at the National Heritage Language Resource Center (NHLRC), UCLA. and developing a Bangla Heritage Language Curriculum for the community school program in collaboration with NHLRC. I am also a member of the South Asian Language Teachers Association (SALTA) and recently presented a paper on "Potential of Literature to Teach Bengali as a Heritage Language" at the SALTA Conference 2024, UW-Madison.
Currently, I am an independent consultant for the American Council for Foreign
Languages (ACTFL) as a Bengali language expert. I am also a Yale HRAF Global Scholar. And in 2024 July, the Bangladeshi Women Solidarity Network began to form transnational solidarity for Bangladeshi Students' uprising and restoration of the democratic system where I have been volunteering as one of the coordinators.