Author Archive

Ayyaz Mallick

Ayyaz is a PhD student in the Faculty of Environmental Studies, York University. His previous research has dealt with the the articulation of class in workplace and residential area politics in Karachi (Pakistan), and particularly the imbrications of class with ethnicity, informality and the politics of clientelism. For his PhD, Ayyaz is aiming to do a genealogy of working class formation in Karachi over the past three decades of neoliberal reforms and globalisation. The research draws upon perspectives from urban geography, development studies, sociology and critical political economy. He is currently in the process of completing comprehensives in the areas of "State-civil society in the global South", "Theories of class and class formation", and "Labour movements and urban space".

Ayyaz is a recipient of the Elia Scholarship, York University's most prestigious graduate award and awarded to three incoming doctoral students each year. In 2015, he was also awarded the Jack Layton Prize for Environmental Research and Action which is given to one graduating Master in Environmental Studies (MES) student every year whose MES program demonstrates both academic excellence and a potential to influence positive environmental change.

Ayyaz was a research student at the Free Speech Debate Project at the Dahrendorf Centre for the Study of Freedom at St. Anthony’s College, Oxford. He graduated from Oriel College, Oxford in 2011.

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The Foreign Minister of Pakistan, Ms. Hina Rabbani Khar, was hosted on 20th February for a talk at the Oxford Union by the Oxford University Pakistan Society and the Oxford Union Society. As the young female foreign minister of a country embedded in popular media imagination as a haven for all sorts of retrogressive elements, Ms. Khar’s visit was bound to generate a lot of interest among the student body. And so it proved as around 200 students attended Ms. Khar’s address which was covered by Pakistan’s major media outlets. The content of Ms. Khar’s speech was quite broad and overarching wherein she not only covered her own domain of Pakistani foreign policy but also set out what she believed …

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As Ishtaiq Ahmed mentions in a recent blog post on the annual Pakistan Future Leaders’ Conference, held in Oxford earlier this month, Pakistani students in the UK have definitively shown that progressive thought is alive and well within the Pakistani community. For example, this student-driven event was unafraid to pick up sensitive issues such as the Balochistan separatist movement amply demonstrating the capacity of young Pakistanis to be fearless and independent in their thinking. Students vowed to work towards making Pakistan a progressive, truly democratic state where people of all creeds can enjoy the fruits of freedom and liberty. Dr. Ahmed, covered numerous topics in his piece; but I want to highlight a few areas in more detail. As mentioned above, …