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Kazi Ashraf Uddin

Kazi Ashraf Uddin

PhD Candidate
MA in English Studies, University of Bordeaux (France); BA (Hons) and MA in English, University of Chittagong (Bangladesh)


Ashraf is a PhD candidate in the School of Law, Society and Criminology at UNSW Sydney. His doctoral project aims to develop an intersectional methodological framework of transgender research in South Asian context.

Prior to his ongoing teaching career (at Jahangirnagar University, Bangladesh) spanning more than a decade in the field of English and Cultural studies, Ashraf had completed his MA in English Studies from the University of Bordeaux 3 (France) as an Erasmus scholar and BA and MA in English from University of Chittagong. In 2013, he undertook gender research project as a Scholar-in-residence at the Centre for Contemporary Theory (India) with a Ford scholarship.

Both an anglophone and a francophone, Ashraf taught courses like Postmodern literature, Critical theory and Applied linguistics, Advanced French, Translation studies, Psycholinguistics, and Postcolonial literature at both undergrad and postgraduate level. He has been closely involved in designing curriculum for English and French studies at tertiary level in Bangladesh and is an internationally accredited examiner for French higher diplomas.        

Research topic

Defining South Asian Transgenderism: Quest for a Queer Methodology through Disability Studies

Synopsis

My doctoral research project aims at developing a South Asian transgender research framework accommodating an intersectional perspective in investigating its epistemological and ontological research questions involving the hijras. Informed by a decolonizing methodological approach, this research aims to locate the socio-anthropological and political nuances of transgender identity in Bangladesh.    

Supervisors

Andy Kaladelfos (Scholl of Law, Society and Criminology); Joyce Wu (School of Social Sciences)

Areas of interest

Gender and sexuality studies, Critical posthumanism, Intersectionality, Spatial criticism, Critical pedagogy, Social and cultural anthropology.
Email

k.uddin@unsw.edu.au

    • Kamola plays a Drag-Queen: Reading ‘Lolita Complex’ in Humayun Ahmed’s Ghetuputra Kamola (2012) [accepted for publication in Identity in the Globalized World by University Press Limited (UPL), Bangladesh]
    • ‘“Violence that dare not speak its name: Construing and de-construing minority ‘men’” (co-author: Mashurur Shahid Hossain) in Discoursing Minority. Eds. Anisur Rahman, Supriya Agarwal, Bhumika Sharma, 01/09/2014, Rawat Publishers, India. pp. 76-96, ISBN-13: 978-8131606407.
    • “Heteronationalistic Necropower: Pandemic Double disenfranchisement and Alienation of Hijras”, Socioscapes. International Journal of Societies, Politics and Cultures, Vol 2, N 1. (2020) DOI 10.48250/1031 http://www.socioscapes.org/index.php/sc/article/view/60/62
    • “Sidewalk and Traffic Intersections: An Urban Anthropological Evaluation of the Spatial Organization and Practices of Dhaka City”, accepted for publication in The Jahangirnagar Review: Part II: Social Science, Vol. XLIII (2019) https://juniv.edu/journal/11274/file
    • “Locating the Sublime and the Real in Jibanananda Das’ Poetry”, Harvest, Jahangirnagar University Studies in Language and Literature, Vol. 34, 2019. Department of English, Jahangirnagar University, ISSN: 1729-8326.
    • “Understanding Deviant Space: A Study of the Subversion of Power Dynamics in Paharganj” Crossings VOL. 11 | 2020 | pp. 198-208 | ISSN 2071–1107. https://deh.ulab.edu.bd/sites/default/files/Kazi-Ashraf_Understanding-Deviant-Space_Crossings_volume-11.pdf
    • “Voicing Draupadi: (Re)Constructing the Female Archetype”, Southeast University English Department Journal, Vol. 3, 2018. pp. 7-16. ISSN. 2519-1543.
    • “Consensual Hallucination”: Dystopian Posthuman Condition in Gibson’s Neuromancer published at Harvest, Jahangirnagar Studies in Language and Literature, Vol. 32, Department of English, Jahangirnagar University] pp. 113-122, ISSN: 1729-8326.
    • “Swinging between ‘Ratan’ and ‘Ratna’: Gender Ambiguity in Anan Zaman’s Shikhandi Katha” Harvest, Jahangirnagar Studies in Language and Literature, Vol. 30, Department of English, Jahangirnagar University. pp. 97-105, ISSN: 1729-8326.
    • “Suicide in Sanatorium: Dysfunctional Utopia in Norwegian Wood” in Harvest, Jahangirnagar Studies in Language and Literature, Vol. 29, Department of English, Jahangirnagar University. pp. 119-128, ISSN: 1729-8326
    • Kazi Ashraf Uddin, Rohingya Hijra Refugees: An Agambenian Understanding of Camp Life in the Production of the Figure of the Southern Transgender Refugees, 2nd International Trans Studies Conference, Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, USA, September 2024.
    • Kazi Ashraf Uddin, Being a Refugee and Being a Hijra: A Reflection on the Ethno-religious Category of Gender Diversity in the Context of Forced Displacement, ‘Development Futures' Conference (Development Studies Association of Australia), University of Melbourne, Australia, 2024.
    • Kazi Ashraf Uddin, Pacing in Academia: Conceptualising Crip Temporalities at Neoliberal Universities, Abolishing the University and Borders in Higher Education | One-day conference hosted by the Department of Geography and Environmental Sciences, Northumbria University, UK, 2023.
    • Epistemology of the South: Exploring the Perspectives on Rohingya Refugee Research, 2nd International Conference on “Refugee, Resistance, and Recognition: Global Literary Representations in [Post] post-colonial Perspectives”, Shahjalal University of Science and Technology, Bangladesh, 24-25 February
    • “Religious rehabilitation of the Hijras: An Alternative Transgender Integration Model in the Global South”, DevNet Conference 2022, University of Auckland, New Zealand, 7-9 December 2022.
    • “Translating “the breast” and “the milk”: In Search for an Oriental traduction féminine”, 7th IATIS Conference: The Cultural Ecology of Translation, Barcelona, Spain + Online, 14-17 September 2021.
    • “Defining South Asian Transgenderism: Quest for a Hijra Epistemology through Disability Studies”, PhD Student Masterclass Presentation at DSA 2021: Unsettling Development (Online), hosted by University of East Anglia, 24 June – 2 July 2021.
    • “A Comparative Reading of Two Translations of Syed Waliullah’s novel, Lal Shalu”, paper presented at ICLA Congress 2019, University of Macau, China. 29 July – 2 August 2019.
    • Locating the Sublime and the Real in Jibanananda Das’ Poetry”, paper presented at the International Conference entitled “The Current Literary Theories and Jibanananda Das”, 11 July 2019, University of Barishal, Bangladesh.
    • “Teaching French in South Asia: Pedagogical Challenges”, paper presented for the 23rd International Conference of NELTA, 15-17 February 2018, Kathmandu, Nepal.
    • “From Chitrāngadā to Chitrangada: Performativity and Transformativtiy of the Queer Body”, panel-paper presented at International conference on ‘Redrawing Gender Boundaries in Literary Terrains’, May 2017, BRAC University, Bangladesh.
    • “From Material to Meta-Material: Reading Visual Texts (A)Materially”, paper presented at XIXth International Conference on “Materialities: Objects, Matters, Things” held December 18-21, 2016 at Doon University, India.
    • “Monster in the Pastoral: Reading Eco-Subaltern Narrative in South Asian Literature”, paper presented at the International conference titled “Conference of International Comparative Literature Association 2016 – ICLA”, University of Vienna, Austria [July 20-27, 2016]
    • “‘Return of the Repressed’” or Calling the Repressed: Reading the Spectrality of Lazarus in Literature and Popular Culture”, paper presented at International conference titled “The River: Flows of Innovation and Exchange in the Global(i)zed English World”, March 3-6, 2016, North South University, Bangladesh
    • “Goodbye Blue Sky: Reading Post-Industrial Apocalypse in Pink Floyd”, paper presented at National Conference titled "The Machine in the Garden: Literature, Language and Technology in English Studies", 19 September 2015, Daffodil International University, Bangladesh
    • ““To-be-looked-at-ness”: Masculine Politicized Gaze in Alfred Hitchcock’s Films”, International Conference (IACSS) on “Cultural Transformations”, December 2011, BRAC University, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
    • Violence that dare not speak its name: Construing and de-construing minority ‘men’, (co-presenter: Mashrur Shahid Hossain), International Conference on “Minority Discourses Across Cultures,” March 2012, Central University of Rajasthan, India.
    • ““YOU ARE FULL OF SHIT, MAN”: Constructing “Taxi-Driver” Cult in Film”, International Conference on “Language, Literature, and Cultural Studies in the 21st Century: translocating, transgressing boundaries”, May 2012, Jahangirnagar University, Bangladesh.
    • Thou art ‘base, common, and popular’: popular culture and the minoritized ‘Shakespeare’, (co-presenter: Mashrur Shahid Hossain), 1st Conference on “English and Interdisciplinairity: Shakespeare,” 15-17 December 2012, North South University, Bangladesh.
    • Kamola plays a Drag-Queen: Reading ‘Lolita Complex’ in Humayun Ahmed’s Ghetuputra Kamola (2012), 1st International Conference on Social Science and Humanities, 23-25 August 2014, Independent University, Bangladesh.