My training in cultural anthropology and documentary filmmaking started in Pakistan.

After finishing M.Sc. in Anthropology from Quaid-i-Azam University in Islamabad, I worked at Lok Virsa in Islamabad where I wrote research reports on music cultures of Pakistan, recorded and edited documentary videos, organized research seminars with several academicians from the US, Germany, and Japan, and arranged classical music concerts.

At the University of Washington-Seattle, I studied ethnomusicology, anthropology, and medieval Indian literature, and worked with Professor Lorraine Sakata on South Asian music traditions, and in the Ethnomusicology Archives of the School of Music organizing sound recordings.

During this period, I also annotated the Smithsonian Folklife Festival’s recording on Pakistan’s music.

My Ph.D. is in Cultural Anthropology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison focusing on visual culture, media, and religious nationalism in South Asian countries.

At the University of Wisconsin, I worked on the “Indus Valley Civilization Project” headed by Professor Jonathan Mark Kenoyer.

I also worked with Professor Joe Elder preparing Urdu language teaching material.

I have diversified my research interests currently filming Shia Muslim ceremonies in the Sindh province of Pakistan.

My photographic work on Pakistan concentrates on visual culture of public spaces. In Nepal, my wide-ranging photographic work documents social and cultural milieu arising after decades of political and economic instability.

For my teaching history, philosophy, and syllabi please see the link on teaching.