Nosheen Ali, a sociologist, author, and activist from Karachi, Pakistan, served as one of Gallatin’s Global Faculty in Residence for the 2019-20 academic year and graciously extended her appointment this semester. Ali works and writes across a wide range of themes, including feminist theories of the state, seed justice, and Muslim cultural politics.
She is the author of Delusional States: Feeling Rule and Development in Pakistan’s Northern Frontier (Cambridge University Press, 2019), which offers the first in-depth study of state power, citizenship, and social struggle in Gilgit-Baltistan, a contested terrain that forms part of the disputed borderland of Kashmir. Her other recent publications include The LOC at Wartime: India, Pakistan and the Liberation of Kashmir (2019), Decolonizing Nature/Knowledge: Indigenous Environmental Thought and Feminist Praxis (2019), and From Hallaj to Heer: Poetic Knowledge and the Muslim Tradition (2016).
Ali’s contributions extend beyond the realm of academic writing. In 2014, she launched the online platform, UmangPoetry, which showcases poetry in video format with translations for a variety of South Asian languages (Urdu, Sindhi, Punjabi, Dharki, Hindi). A rare multilingual endeavor, UmangPoetry archives contemporary poetry and the poetic inheritance of the South Asia region. By providing a meeting place for poets, writers, translators, and lovers of the poetic word, UmangPoetry seeks to amplify South Asian traditions of poetic reflection and nurture our capacities for cross-cultural connection.
We met with Nosheen virtually to talk about her experiences working with Gallatin students over the past year.
Brander Suero: How was your transition coming from abroad to teach and work with Gallatin students?
Nosheen Ali: Gallatin is a very precious space. When I taught here in 2015, I taught food politics, poetic history, and development sociology. The range of my research and the terrain of knowledge that I can cover at Gallatin is truly a privilege. Coming back to Gallatin, I had a really warm welcome from the faculty. The students are stellar and I really enjoy working with them. The hard part was of course that I barely landed and we got hit with COVID-19, so I didn’t get to meet people in person as much as I would’ve liked. Having said that, the fact that I was going through this mega-crisis at NYU with a lot of support—I have a lot of gratitude.
BS: What course did you teach last semester, and what are you teaching now? How do they differ?
NA: This semester I’m teaching a course called “Decolonizing Development,” and last semester I taught a course called “Words of the Sufi: Love, Knowledge, and Poetic History”—widely different terrains and widely different forms of knowledge. I cannot tell you what a joy it has been to teach both classes, in a crisis time as well. The liberating potential of the readings really connected to some of the tragedies of the pandemic in some strange way. “Words of the Sufi” was my first foray into teaching a religious class; it combined religion, literature, and sociology. Gallatin gives me the opportunity to experiment, and I wanted students to understand knowledge and epistemology from a non-Western perspective. “Decolonizing Development” is about how the modern world is organized and what fundamental challenges and contestations have posed for the project of development.
BS: Which moment, either from your classes or your time here at Gallatin, has stood out the most?
NA: Wow, there are so many moments. There are moments when in class, students take off into new directions and you sit back and witness the beauty of their powers. Just last class, students were presenting on seed politics and food sovereignty and just quickly, students were making connections between the agricultural industry, the pharmaceutical industry, and bringing their own history of depression and acupuncture.
Other students chimed in with their knowledge of technology and connected it to how land and earth in the “Third World” is being made dependent on agrochemicals. Some marvelous conversations on the overlapping arenas of development in education, technology, agriculture, and politics.
At some point, I sat back and instructed them to unmute themselves and feel free to engage in the conversation. Students self-regulated. I felt like there was a volleyball match happening: students were picking up topics and advancing them and discussing among themselves.
BS: What advice would you like to give Gallatin students, after getting to know them?
NA: Be brave. In the classroom and outside the classroom. The moment we are in exposes us to a lot of violence in society, and we need to stand up. All of us are struggling with what we can do, how we can do, where do we change, and where do we organize. I think owning your power is very significant. I take the classroom as a space for owning our collective power, owning our collective voice, deeply thinking through history, politics, and society as a way forward. So yes, be brave. I draw so much inspiration from my students, especially at this moment. Students are ready to shake things up. I am blessed to have such stellar students and am grateful to be able to connect with them on important ideas and topics.