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Dr Masood Ashraf Raja
Assistant Professor, Speaker and Author
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Dr. Masood Ashraf Raja
Profile
Author of Constructing Pakistan
(Oxford UP), Dr. Masood Ashraf Raja is an Assistant Professor of Postcolonial
Literature and Theory and the editor of Pakistaniaat: A Journal of
Pakistan Studies.
Dr. Raja specializes in politics of the Islamic world, issues of Islamic
radicalism, and US relations with the Muslim world with a specific focus on
Pakistan, Afghanistan and the Middle East.
Dr. Raja moved from Pakistan, his native country, to America in 1996 after
ten years of military service as an officer in the Pakistan army. Raja hopes to
foster a better understanding between the people of his primary culture and the
rest of the world through his writings, teaching assignments, and through
public intellectual exchanges. He is currently working on
his second book, entitled Secular Fundamentalism: Poetics
of Incitement and the Muslim Sacred.
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"Masood, your presentation on
Pakistan and Three Cups of Tea was
most informative.
Our audience was huge (for us) because everyone wanted to hear you.
And they all went away with such laudatory comments.
We will have to make arrangements for you to come back."
- Nancy McGrath, Our Lady of Elms
High School, Akron,
Ohio |
Keynote topics
- Political Islam
- South Asia--Pakistan and Afghanistan
- US Relations with the Muslim World
- Globalization and
Neoliberalism
- Postcolonialism and Cosmopolitanism
Additional information on Dr. Raja
Selected Public Talks
The Franklin Club. “US Pakistan Relations.” February 9, 2009.
Ohio Democratic Alliance. “Pakistan and Afghanistan.” January 6, 2009.
Belmont University.
Seventh Annual Symposium on 'Debate, Dissent
and Dialogue' (One of the three keynote speakers), 2008.
Akron Peace Group. “Pakistan and Three Cups of Tea.”
December 3, 2008.
Book Discussion. Time and the River. Kent State
University. Fall 2008.
Selected Publications
Books:
Constructing Pakistan: Foundational Texts and the Rise of
Muslim National Identity (Oxford UP, 2010).
This book addresses the hitherto neglected aspect of postcolonial and
historical engagement with the creation and construction of Indian Muslim
national identity before the partition of India in 1947. Challenging the
conventional and postcolonial appraisals of the Indian national history, I
suggest that the Indian Muslim particular identity and Muslim exceptionalism
preceded the rise of Congress or Ghandhian nationalism.
The Postnational Fantasy: Nationalism, Cosmopolitics and
Science Fiction. (co-edited with Jason W. Ellis and Swaralip Nandi).
McFarland Press (Forthcoming).
Once Upon a Country, (Novel), Trafford, 2002.
The Eastern Breeze, (Poems), Appledot Publishers,
Pakistan, 1999.
Refereed Journal Articles:
“Jihad in Islam: Colonial Encounter, the Neoliberal Order, and
the Muslim Subject of Resistance.” The American Journal of Islamic Social
Sciences Vol. 26 (4) 2009: 47-71.
This essay is a study of Jihad as a reactionary practice and the impact of
neoliberal economics on Jihadist movements. My main claim is that failure
of the postcolonial nation-state due to restructuring mandates forced by
International players is an important cause of the rise of Jihadist movements.
“The Rhetoric of Democracy and War on Terror: The Case of
Pakistan.” Pakistaniaat: A Journal of Pakistan Studies Vol. 1 (2) 2009:
60-65.
This essay is a critique of the US policy toward Pakistan, with a special
focus on the US support of the unconstitutional regime of General Pervez
Musharraf.
“The Indian Rebellion of 1857 and Mirza Ghalib’s
Narrative of Survival.” Prose Studies Vol. 31 (1) 2009: 40-54.
This essay provides a discussion of the rise of Indian Muslim exceptionlism
as expressed in the diary of Ghalib, the leading Muslim poet of his time.
"The Postcolonial Student: Learning the Ethics of Global
Solidarity in an English Classroom." Radical Teacher. No. (82)
2008: 32-37. This essay provides a discussion of my
pedagogical practices in an undergraduate world literature class.
"Muhammad Iqbal: Islam, the West, and the Quest for a Modern
Muslim Identity." The International Journal of Asian Philosophical
Association. Vol. 1 (1) 2008: 33-45.
Using one major poem of Allama Muhammad Iqbal, the Muslim poet-philosopher,
this essay discusses Iqbal’s view of the colonial West and his emphasis on Islam
as an alternative world system.
“The King Buzzard: Bano Qudsia’s
Postnational Allegory and the Nation-State.” Mosaic: A
Journal for the Interdisciplinary Study of Literature.
Vol. 40 (1) 2007: 95-110.
Using Bano Qudsia’s Urdu novel Raja Gidh as a
point of departure, this essay analyses the ambivalent role of the novel in
articulating the national and postnational tendencies of the Islamic world in
general and Pakistan in particular.
“Joseph Conrad: Question of Racism and the
Representation of Muslims in his Malayan Works.” Postcolonial Text
[online]. Vol. 3 (4) 2007: 1-13.
Taking the discussion of Jospeh Conrad's alleged racism beyond
The Heart of Darkness, this essay highlights the importance of Conrad's
Muslim characters in his Malay novels.
“Operation Enduring Freedom and the Politics of Popular
Representation.” Muslim Public Affairs Journal. 2007: 81-90. This
essay provides a brief discussion of US war in Afghanistan as viewed and
reported by local Pakistani media.
“We is All People: The Marginalized East-Indian and the
Economy of Difference in Lovelace’s The
Dragon Can’t Dance. Caribbean Studies Vol. 34 (1) 2006: 111-130.
This essay provides a discussion of the novel’s Idno-Trinidadian and African
Creole characters within the framework of Trinidadian national divide between
the two corresponding significant political communities.
“Qurratulain Hyder’s River of Fire: The Novel and
the Politics of Writing Beyond the Nation-State.” Interactions Vol. 15
(2) 2006: 49-60.
This article provides a discussion of the most important Urdu
novel—translated into English in 1998—as a critique of the post-partition
struggles of national identity in India and Pakistan with a special focus on the
author’s attempt at retrieving a collective memory for Hindus and Muslims of
India.
“Reading the Postcolony in the Center: V.S Naipaul’s
A Bend in the River.” South Asian
Review: Special Issue on V. S. Naipaul Vol. 26 (1) 2005: 224-239.
Forcing a different kind of reading of Naipaul’s problematic texts, this
essay offers a reading strategy that goes beyond the politics of representation
in order to transform the text into a launching pad for further study of the
cultures that it attempts to represent.
“Death as a Form of Becoming: The Muslim Imagery of Death and
Necropolitics.” Digest of Middle East Studies Vol. 14 (2) 2005: 8-26.
Responding to Achille Mbembe’s theorization of necropolitics, this essay
discusses the concept of death in Islam as represented in Pakistani popular
fiction.
Selected Academic Presentations
“Terror.edu.” Invited Panelist. First Winter Theory Institute, Society for
Critical Exchange, the University of Houston-Victoria, February 2010.
“Muhammad Iqbal: Islam, the West, and the Question of
Muslim Modernity.” Modern Languages Association, 125th Annual
Convention, Philadelphia, December 2009.
“Cosmopolitan Pretensions and the Imperial Project: V.S Naipaul on Islam.”
American Comparative Literature Association, Harvard University, March 2009.
“Please Argue Some More.” Discussion Panel with Michael Berube and Daniel
Frick. The Seventh Annual Humanities Symposium.
Belmont University, September 2008.
“Jihad in Islam: The Creation of a Mujahid
Identity in the Past and Present.” The Seventh Annual Humanities Symposium.
Belmont University, September 2008.
“Women, Islam, and the Concept of Motherhood in the works of Muhammad Iqbal
and Qurratulain Hyder.” American Comparative Literature Association, California
State University, April 2008.
“The Call of Death: the Iraq War and the Muslim Hero in
Pakistani Popular Fiction.” 34th Annual Conference on South Asia,
University of Wisconsin-Madison, October 2005.
“Muhammad Iqbal: Empire and the Liberatory Potential of Religion.” American
Comparative Literature Association, Pennsylvania State University, March 2005.
“Doctorow’s Ragtime: Inserting Class in a Literary
Discussion.” Seventh Annual Conference, Marxist Reading Group, University of
Florida, Gainesville, March 2005.
“We is All People: The Marginalized East-Indian in Lovelace’s
Dragon Can’t Dance.” Southern American Studies Association, Louisiana
State University, February 2005.
“Beyond National Cinema: The Politics of Asian Diasporic Cultural
Production.” Round Table Discussion. 30th Annual Conference on
Literature and Film, Florida State University, January 2005.
“Tradition and its Alternatives.” Chair, Conference
Panel. 29th Annual Conference on Literature and Film, Florida
State University, January 2004.
“Necropolitics: Death as a Form of Becoming.” Comparative Literature
Conference, University of Texas, Austin, October 2004.
“Wars of Preemption and the Muslim Imaginary of Death.” Literature
Colloquium, Florida State University, Fall 2004.
“Salman Rushdie and the Politics of Representation.” Literature Colloquium,
Florida State University, Fall 2003.
Contact information
To book Dr. Raja or learn more, please contact him directly
Masood A. Raja, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Postcolonial Literature and Theory
Department of English
Kent State University
Editor, Pakistaniaat: http://pakistaniaat.org
Personal Website:
http://postcolonial.net
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