Yunas Samad is a British

social scientist Social science (often rendered in the plural as the social sciences) is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of societies and the relationships among members within those societies. The term was formerly used to refer to the ...

whose research is at the interface of

sociology Sociology is the scientific study of human society that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. The term sociol ...

politics Politics () is the set of activities that are associated with decision-making, making decisions in social group, groups, or other forms of power (social and political), power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of Social sta ...

and

history History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...

. He is Professor of South Asian Studies and the Director of the Ethnicity and Social Policy Research Centre (ESPRC) at the

University of Bradford The University of Bradford is a public research university located in the city of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. A plate glass university, it received its royal charter in 1966, making it the 40th university to be created in Britain, but ...

. He is an expert on the study of

South Asia South Asia is the southern Subregion#Asia, subregion of Asia that is defined in both geographical and Ethnicity, ethnic-Culture, cultural terms. South Asia, with a population of 2.04 billion, contains a quarter (25%) of the world's populatio ...

and its

diaspora A diaspora ( ) is a population that is scattered across regions which are separate from its geographic place of birth, place of origin. The word is used in reference to people who identify with a specific geographic location, but currently resi ...

and has published several books on the topic of

Pakistani nationalism Pakistani nationalism refers to the political, cultural, linguistic, historical, religious and geographical expression of patriotism by the people of Pakistan, of pride in the history, heritage and identity of Pakistan, and visions for its f ...

ethnicity An ethnicity or ethnic group is a group of people with shared attributes, which they Collective consciousness, collectively believe to have, and long-term endogamy. Ethnicities share attributes like language, culture, common sets of ancestry, ...

Islam Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

and the War on Terror. He regularly comments on the Muslim diaspora, politics and security issues in Pakistan for the BBC, the Dawn and other media outlets.

Background

He was born in Lahore and his family migrated to the United Kingdom during his childhood. He was brought up and educated in South Merton, London. He is married and has one son. Prior to being an academic he worked in commerce and left as Managing Director of Samad Carpets, working in various offices across London, Lahore and Karachi.

Education

He graduated with a B.A. Hons in

History History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...

from the

University of North London The University of North London (UNL) was a university in London, England, formed from the Polytechnic of North London (PNL) in 1992 when that institution was granted university status. PNL, in turn, had been formed by the amalgamation of the No ...

where he was a student of Denis Judd. He was then awarded a British Academy scholarship to study for a

DPhil A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

Modern History The modern era or the modern period is considered the current historical period of human history. It was originally applied to the history of Europe and Western history for events that came after the Middle Ages, often from around the year 1500, ...

St Antony's College St Antony's College is a colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1950 as the result of the gift of French merchant Sir Antonin Besse of Aden, St Antony's specialises in intern ...

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

under the supervision of the Indian historian Professor Tapan Raychaudhuri.

Academic career

He remained at St Antony's College, on a Wingate Scholarship as Associate Fellow of the Cecil Rhodes Chair of Race Relations and worked with the African historian Professor Terrence Ranger. He taught at AFRAS at

Sussex University The University of Sussex is a public research university located in Falmer, East Sussex, England. It lies mostly within the city boundaries of Brighton and Hove. Its large campus site is surrounded by the South Downs National Park, and provide ...

and then was a Research Fellow at the Centre for Research on Ethnic Relations,

Warwick University The University of Warwick ( ; abbreviated as ''Warw.'' in post-nominal letters) is a public research university on the outskirts of Coventry between the West Midlands and Warwickshire, England. The university was founded in 1965 as part of a ...

working with the sociologist John Rex. He was appointed as a lecturer at Bradford University in 1994. Samad's main areas of interest are

transnationalism Transnationalism is a research field and social phenomenon grown out of the heightened interconnectivity between people and the receding economic and social significance of boundaries among nation states. Overview The term "trans-national" was ...

nationalism Nationalism is an idea or movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, it presupposes the existence and tends to promote the interests of a particular nation, Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: Theory, I ...

, and

identity politics Identity politics is politics based on a particular identity, such as ethnicity, Race (human categorization), race, nationality, religion, Religious denomination, denomination, gender, sexual orientation, Socioeconomic status, social background ...

in South Asia and Europe. He has conducted a number of funded projects, working for various organisations, such as the

Foreign and Commonwealth Office The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) is the ministry of foreign affairs and a Departments of the Government of the United Kingdom, ministerial department of the government of the United Kingdom. The office was created on 2 ...

, Economic Social Research Council, The European Commission and the

Joseph Rowntree Foundation The Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) is a charity that conducts and funds research aimed at solving poverty in the UK. JRF's stated aim is to "inspire action and change that will create a prosperous UK without poverty." Originally called the J ...

. He was a member of the Expert Group on Humanities advising the European Commission on its FP 7 Research Programme (2005-6) and is a Trustee of the Charles Wallace Pakistan Trust (2010). He has played a prominent role in the organisation of a number of learned societies and was Vice-chairman of the British Association for South Asian Studies (BASAS) (1999–2003), Executive Committee member of the European Association for South Asian Studies (EASAS)(1997–2003) and was Deputy Director of the South Asia Research Centre, Geneva (2004-8).

Selected publications

*''Pakistan-US Conundrum: Jihadis, Military and the People – the struggle for control'', Hurst & Co, London, 2010. *''Muslim Community Cohesion: Bradford Report'', Joseph Rowntree Foundation, York, 2010. *With Gayen Pandey, ''Faultlines of Nationhood'', Roli Press, New Delhi, 2007. *With Kasturi Sen, ''Islam in the European Union: Muslim Youth and the War on Terror'', Oxford University Press, Karachi, 2007. *With John Eade, ''Community Perceptions of Forced Marriage'', Foreign and Commonwealth Office, 2003. *With T. Ranger, and O. Stuart (eds.)'' Culture Identity and Politics: Ethnic Minorities in Britain'', Avebury, Aldershot, 1996. *''A Nation in Turmoil'': Nationalism and Ethnicity in Pakistan 1937-58, Sage, New Delhi, 1995.

References

External links