Shabana Mir 

Shabana Mir was born in London, grew up in Lahore, studied in the U.K. and then moved to the U.S. Who knows what happens next? She’s passionate about religion and gender, and spends much of her time with teaching, research, and service in those areas.

Shabana started out as a professor of English in Islamabad, and then moved to the anthropological study of Muslim minority identity, writing the award-winning book, Muslim American Women on Campus: Undergraduate Social Life and Identity (University of North Carolina Press, 2014). She is Associate Professor of Anthropology and Director of Undergraduate Studies at American Islamic College, Chicago, and Visiting Researcher at Northwestern University. In her extra time, she works with HEART, a sexual health advocacy group.

Her doctoral dissertation received the Outstanding Dissertation Award from the American Anthropological Association’s Council on Anthropology and Education (2006). She also has an M.A. in English Literature from Punjab University, Pakistan and an M.Phil. in Education from Cambridge University (U.K.). Shabana has taught at Millikin University, University of Southern California online, Oklahoma State University, Indiana University, Eastern Illinois University, and the International Islamic University (Islamabad). She has worked as curriculum designer, residence hall director, retreat leader, faculty development expert, and research consultant in a variety of settings. Shabana has also written academic chapters, journal articles, children’s literature, and a blog.

Shabana speaks and writes on gender, religion, education, and politics, in English and Urdu. She loves seascapes, furry mammals, murder mysteries, thriller movies, archeological discoveries, and people who appreciate irony.