My research is interdisciplinary and engages with contemporary contexts of Muslim life as well as the politics of culture in Pakistan where I grew up. I began my career at SOAS in 2000 and joined Exeter in 2021. My publications have shaped critical debate across five overlapping fields, gender, questions of agency for women across social divides, postcolonial theory, Muslim Studies, Urdu literary culture. I have taught across Area Studies, Comparative Literature, Cultural Studies, Postcolonial Studies, Translation Studies and Gender Studies. My monograph Gender, Sexuality and Feminism in Pakistani Urdu writing (2022) plots a genealogy of gender in Urdu literary culture and the legacy of Urdu feminist poets in the twentieth century. Another major publication Framing Muslims: stereotyping and representation after 9/11 (co-authored with Peter Morey) (2011) has been a field defining interdisciplinary study that explores the conceptual idea of framing and representation through the racial stereotyping and self-stereotyping of Muslims in media narratives in North America and the UK. I have been Co-I (with Peter Morey) on two funded research projects Framing Muslims (AHRC international Research Network) and Muslims Trust and Cultural Dialogue (RCUK). Currently I am Co-I on the AHRC funded project Empathy, Narrative and Cultural Values. Our research outputs have included co-edited books including Contesting Islamophobia: Anti-Muslim Prejudice in Media, Culture and Politics (2019), journal special issues and peer reviewed journal articles. I have published widely and contributed to policy briefings, knowledge transfer activities, research consultancies and briefings. My commentary and interviews have been aired by the BBC, SkyNews, EuroNews, TRT World, Indus News and Pakistan Television Network. I have written for The National UAE, The Times Higher Education UK, the British Film Institute and The Conversation. I am a co-founding co-editor of the interdisciplinary journal Critical Pakistan Studies published by Cambridge University Press and co-founding co-editor of Global Textualities: Multicultural and Transcultural Narratives published by Manchester University Press. I have served on the AHRC Peer Review College and am a reviewer for multiple outlets. At SOAS, I have led the Centre for Pakistan, the Centre for Gender Studies and the Centre for English Studies, and the Decolonising Working Group. At Exeter I have led the College of Humanities Anti-Racism coordinator and am currently the Dept EDI lead. I welcome enquiries from research students with interests in gender, postcolonial, world and comparative theories and literatures and those interested in working across disciplines.