School of Social and Political Science

Background

Bio

I am a doctoral candidate in international development (funded by the Wellcome Trust). My academic background is in anthropology and critical development studies. I completed my M.A from Indiana University Bloomington in 2017 (funded by the Fulbright). My M.A. research examined the cultural life of Pakistani Americans in southern Brooklyn, NY, in the aftermath of 9/11. During this time, I also worked as a research consultant with various arts institutions within New York State Government on projects pertaining to South Asian and Muslim refugee artists.

I also have seven years of professional experience in social research, education, journalism and international development. As a researcher and journalist, I have reported and written on sectarian violence and conflict and rehabilitation in Pakistan. Between 2018 and 2021, I worked in international development in various capacities including project lead, culture expert and development consultant for UNESCO and the World Bank. These experiences have led me to engage more critically with prevalent development discourses, which forms the impetus for my doctoral project.

Research

My doctoral project, tentatively titled "Therapeutic Logics of Suicide Prevention in southern Pakistan: a study of mental health brokers and translators in Sindh" examines suicide-prevention programmes in Sindh province through a focus on the individual 'experts' who serve as brokers and translators of psy-discourses within the complex mental health assemblage. Using interviews and documentary analysis, I aim to delineate psy-discourses that shape how development actors and the public understand suicides and their link with mental health. Specifically, I ask:

• How do mental health brokers and translators in Sindh understand, and in turn, construct, mental health through their involvement in MHPSS projects?
• Which wider ‘global’ and ‘local’ discourses do development workers draw upon, or translate, in designing and implementing mental health projects?
• What are the resonances and disjunctures between mental health as inscribed within the projects, and the perspectives and understandings expressed by staff on the ground, and what are the unintended consequences of (dis)alignments?

In doing so, I want to trace the therapeutic assemblages that shape local meanings and practices surrounding mental health in Pakistan, and their potential role in depoliticisation and privatisation of mental health in the country.

I am supervised by Dr Kaveri Qureshi, Dr Sumeet Jain, and Professor Martyn Pickersgill.

Publications

Articles:
Dossa, S., Rajani, L., Mahar, M., (In preparation). Doing Feminist Digital Ethnography in Pakistan
during COVID-19 (tentative). Article for the project ‘Family and Community in the time of COVID-19
(FACT)’. University College London.

Sayeed, A., Mallah, H.B., and Rajani, L., (2014). Class Conflict, Extraneous Factors, or Institutional
Vacuum? Review Paper on Causes of Violence in Swat. Report for The Asia Foundation. Collective
for Social Science Research.

Talks:

(2020). Shifting the Focus: Conducting Online Ethnographies in times of COVID-19. Talk
given at Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad. Sponsored by Hanns Seidel Foundation.

(2020). Doing Ethnography in the time of COVID-19. Panellist at Pakistan Institute of
Development Economics, Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad.

(2017). Putting Folklore Studies to Work in the Public Sector. Roundtable at the Future of
American Folkloristics conference. Indiana University, Bloomington.

(2017). Eric ki Baithak (Gathering at Eric’s): Place making in Informal Musical Gatherings
in Brooklyn’s Little Pakistan. 11th Annual Meeting of Landscape, Space and Place Conference.
Indiana University Bloomington, Indiana.

(2016). Indiana, New York and Pakistan: How structural factors impact cultural work?
Annual Meeting of the American Folklore Society and International Society for Folk Narrative
Research. Miami, Florida.

Reports:

(2016). Baseline Survey for ‘Kaleidoscope: Muslim Traditional Art and Culture in New York State’ Project. Report for New York Folklore Society.

(2016). Little Pakistan in Brooklyn: A Preliminary Survey of Pakistani Cultural Life in New
York City. Report for Brooklyn Arts Council, New York.

(2015). In the Heart of Darkness: Shia Resistance and Revival in Pakistan. The Herald.
Dawn Media Group. June 2015 issue. URL: https://herald.dawn.com/news/1153276/heart-ofdarkness-shia-resistance-a…