All Publications

GRANTS: COMPLETED PROJECTS (selected)
 

• Gender-specific impacts of climate change on the lives and livelihoods of Haor dwellers. Manusher Jonno Foundation (MJF). 2023-2024. 
• Transgressions and Transformations in Transcends: Speculative Fictions, 2023-2024, J.U. Research Project, J.U. 2023-2024 
• Improvement on Assistive Device for People with Disability in Bangladesh. Helen Keller International. 2022-2023 
• Conceptualizing Necropolitics in Neoliberal States: A Theoretical Intervention. Research Project, JU. 2022-2023. 
• Inclusion of persons with Disabilities and Gender Diversity in Education. Brac. 2022-2023 
• Spatial Analysis of Urbanization in Dhaka. Research Project, JU. 2021-2022. 
• Providing Opportunities for Children of Daulatdia and Faridpur through Inclusive Education Program. Save the Children. 2022-2023. 
• Criminalization of Hijras in Newspapers of Bangladesh: A Critical Discourse Analysis. Research Project, J.U. 2021-2022. 
• Strengthen Children of RMG worker’s Protection and Education rights (SCOPE)’ project. Sushilon. 2021-2022.
• Formative Research on Physical and Humiliating Punishment against Children, Child Marriage and Exclusive Breast Feeding. Asia Foundation. 2020-2021. 
• Knowledge, Attitude, Behavior and Practices on Ending Child Marriage and Violence against Children. UNICEF. 2019-2020. 
• Impact Evaluation of a Livelihood project in Teknaf, Cox’s Bazar, Community Empowerment Promoted through Livelihoods and Skills Development. UNHCR. 2019-20220. 
• Co-Space Creators as Performers: Campus Protests to End Racial Inequality. Washington State University Grant for Innovative Research. 2017-2018. 
   

EDITING & REVIEWING ACADEMIC JOURNALS

• Dr. Sharif is an enlisted reviewer in several SAGE, Project MUSE, and Taylor and Francis journals. 
• Reviewer, QED: A Journal in GLBTQ Worldmaking  
• Reviewer, Society and Culture in South Asia, Literature, and 
• Reviewer, Journal of Literary Studies. 
• Editor, Heathwood Journal of Critical Theory, Heathwood Press, UK
• Editor, Harvest: Jahangirnagar Studies in Language and Literature, vol.38, June, 2023. 
   

REVIEWER OF GRANTS

• Dr. Sharif is a reviewer of Grant Proposals of Higher Education Acceleration and Transformation (HEAT) Project, University Grants Commission (UGC), Bangladesh. 
• Dr. Sharif works as a panel reviewer for the Grants for Advanced Research in Education (GARE) under the Bangladesh Bureau of Educational Information and Statistics (BANBEIS), 2020-Present. 

CONFERENCES

• Shakespearizing Digital Humanities and Digitalizing Shakespeare: Pedagogical Practices, Opportunities, and Challenges, a Keynote Address,  Jatiya Kabi Kazi Nazrul Islam University, Trishal, Mymensingh, 25 May 2025
• Investigating New Materialism and Posthumanism: Analyses of a Selection of 21st-Century Novels, Poetry, Comics, Graphic Narratives, and Films, Faculty of Humanities Seminar, Jahangirnagar University, Savar, Dhaka, 15 May, 2025
• Interdisciplinarity and Diversity in Contemporary Pedagogical Practices and Research, Department of English, Independent University (IUB), Dhaka, Bangladesh, 28 May 2025
• De/Re-Territorializing Romantic Poetry: Towards a Posthumanist Reception. EDRU-ATLEB International Conference 2024: Revisiting the Canon: Reading British and American Literatures from Contemporary Perspectives Organised by Department of English, Rajshahi University & Association of Teachers of Literatures in English, Bangladesh (ATLEB), Rajshahi Chapter December 20 & 21 (Friday & Saturday), 2024 
• From Passive ‘Receiving’ to Active ‘Doing’: Approaching the Digital Pedagogy using DH, CALL, and PBLL in EFL classrooms, International Conference on Language Metamorphosis: Implications for Language Education in Decolonial Contexts (LMLEDC) from 28-30 November 2024. BRAC Institute of Languages, BRAC University, Dhaka, Bangladesh. 
• Trans-speciesism, Trans-ecologies, and Trans-corporeality: Examining Medical Posthumanism in the 21st Century American Poetry, 15-16 November 2024, University of Liberal Arts (ULAB), Dhaka. 
• (Amma Ba’d—And Thereafter): Critical-Affective Pedagogy for EFL Learners in Madrasas of Bangladesh, Jahangirnagar University, Dhaka. 28-29 May, 2024.
• Developing Reading Skills in Culturally Sustaining Pedagogies (CSP), Hornby Project - Qawmi Madrasah Teacher Training, ‘Enhancing the Effectiveness of English Teaching at Qawmi Madrasas in Bangladesh, organized by TESOL Society of Bangladesh in collaboration with: Institute of Modern Languages (IML), University of Dhaka, 17 May, 2024
• Who is Afraid of Interdisciplinary Studies?: Towards an Interdisciplinary Pedagogy for Teaching Literary Texts.  East West University, 11-12 June, 2023.
• “Asian Americans for Space Creation: Toward Anti-Racist and Anti-Capitalist Community Activism.” Association for Asian American Studies Conference. The Westin St. Francis Hotel. Union Square, San Francisco, March 29- 31, 2018.
• “Motion and Stasis for the Brown Transgenders: Transnational Reproduction of (Im)mobility.” Tufts Humanities Conference: Mobile Communities. Anderson Hall. Tufts University, Medford, MA. Friday, October 28, 2016.
• “From "Murderous Inclusion‟ to  “Machinic Enslavement”: Networks for Ethnic Studies.” Symposium on American Ethnic Studies: Toward Transdisciplinary Perspectives. Samuel E. Kelly Ethnic Cultural Center. University of Washington, Seattle, WA. Friday, May 6, 2016.
• “Co-Space Creators as Performers: Campus Protests to End Racial Inequality.” Interdisciplinary Symposium on Space. Washington State University, Pullman, WA. Friday, October 21, 2016.
• “Whose Transnationalism?” Claremont Interdisciplinary Conference: Lost in Transnationalism: Reflections on Multiculturalism and Globalization. Department of Cultural Studies, Claremont Graduate University, California, USA, October 26, 2012.
• “Hybridity in the Postcolonial Cultural Studies” Faculty Seminar. East West University, Bangladesh, June 12, 2013.
• “The Role of Computer Technology in Development of English Skills.” English and Technology conference. Faculties of Arts and Humanities, Jahangirnagar University, Savar, Dhaka, June 14, 2011.
• “Television as a Cultural Text.” English 4 Today conference. Department of English, Jahangirnagar University, Savar, Dhaka, January, 2010.
• “Alan Badiou‟s Theory of Evil.” Faculty Enrichment Seminar. Department of Philosophy, Jahangirnagar University, Bangladesh, June, 2009.
• “The Role of Consumers as audience of Ads and Billboards.” Cultural Studies Conference. University of Liberal Arts, Bangladesh. February, 2008.
• “Mirror and the Gun”: Postcoloniality and Diaspora. Latin American Literature International Conference in a panel chaired by Professor Rajagopalan Radhakrishnan, UC, Irvine, USA arranged by Jahangirnagar University, Bangladesh. July, 2006.
   

KEYNOTE SPEAKER 

• Shakespearizing Digital Humanities and Digitalizing Shakespeare: Pedagogical Practices, Opportunities, and Challenges, a Keynote Address,  Jatiya Kabi Kazi Nazrul Islam University, Trishal, Mymensingh, 25 May 2025
• International Conference on Development Research, 20 December 2023, Datascape Research Network, Dhaka. 
• Physical and Humiliating Punishment against Children, Child Marriage, and Exclusive Breastfeeding, Save the Children International, Dhaka, 27 November, 2023. 
• “Approaching Geopolitical Tensions in Solving Global problems,” Global Case Competition, April 11, 2014. International Programs, Washington State University.
• “Integrating Culture in Education,” International Mother Language Day, March 2, 2014. Association of Bangladeshi Students and Scholars, WSU.

WORKSHOP

• Abstract Writing and Polishing your Article for Publication, Southeast University, 20 March, 2025
• Ethics in Research and Fieldwork, Datascape Research Network, Dhaka, July 29, 2024. 
• Verbal and Communication Skills at Workspaces, Digital Hub International, June 07, 2023. 
• Conducting and Attending a Meeting, Datascape, Dhaka, February 17, 2022. 

 

PUBLICATIONS

2024: Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles

• Examining Gender Transgressions and Transformations in Transcendent: The Year’s Best Transgender Speculative Fiction.  Harvest. Volume 39. ISSN: 1729-8326. (accepted)
   

ABSTRACT

 

Speculative fiction is a broad literary genre that includes works where the setting is other than the real world, involving supernatural, futuristic, or other imagined elements. It’s an umbrella term for genres that depart from strict realism and includes science fiction, fantasy, horror, and other imaginative realms. This genre allows readers to explore new characters, different rules, and exciting possibilities beyond the everyday reality. In recent years, there has been an explosion of speculative fiction with transgender themes. These stories feature trans characters and explore a wide range of emotional and thematic diversity. From Indigenous cultural traditions to time travel, colonialism, assistive technology, internet privacy, and the relationship between trans-ness and disability or chronic illness, these narratives can be both grim and cheerful, often with a quirky twist. These, overall, certainly indicate a trajectory towards innovations and experiments in contemporary fiction. The present paper examines the gender diversity, gender transformations, and gender transgressions in a number of selected stories categorized as speculative fiction.  This inquiry aims to understand not only how trans speculative fictions are challenging gender stereotypes and customary ideas of gender but also how this new genre is making new insights into our understanding of gender and sexuality.  

Keywords: 

Speculative Fiction; Transgender; Stereotypes; Sexuality; Transgressions

 

2023: Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles

• “Urbanization in Dhaka: A Lefebvrian Analysis”. Harvest: Jahangirnagar Studies in Language and Literature . Volume 37. ISSN: 1729-8326.

 

ABSTRACT

How to understand the patterns and practices of urbanization in Dhaka? How do the numerous development projects in Dhaka shape the spaces and lifestyles of dwellers of Dhaka? How do the acts, routines, and practices of Dhakaites in their everyday life get shaped by the spatial management in Dhaka and, in a reciprocal way, how do the Dhakaites themselves take part in this spatial management? With some interesting questions like this, a Lefebvrian analysis can reveal some useful conflicts and conjectures, significant insights on the interactions and exchanges between spaces and lives that can help us rethink the spatial construction, management, and maintenance involved in the urbanization in Dhaka. 

With this hypothesis as a point of departure, the present research theoretically engages Lefebvre’s spatial triad and his ideas of Abstract Spaces and Differential Spaces. Practically, it collects data on ‘the spatial constructions in Dhaka’ and their management and maintenance. These data help identify the points of conflicts and conjectures between spaces and lives in Dhaka and, in the process, critically examine the patterns and practices of urbanization in Dhaka. Methodologically, the project integrates an inquiry into ideas of space to understand urbanization in Dhaka. In doing so, the paper develops a theoretical frame—Space and Differential Spaces. This framework would help analyses of urbanization in Dhaka.

Keywords: 

Cultural Studies; Spatiality; Urbanization; Anthropogeography Development; Representation

 

• “Monstrosity, Crime, Medicalization, and Rehabilitation of Hijras in Bangladesh:  A Critical Discourse Analysis”. Harvest: Jahangirnagar Studies in Language and Literature. Volume 38. ISSN: 1729-8326.

 

ABSTRACT

Hijras are one of several forms of transgender people who have resided in Bangladesh since antiquity. They continue to be viewed as cursed and a nuisance, which forces them to make hazardous and frequently dangerous decisions. Their exclusion from heteronormative families and their isolated and unique existence within their groups are frequently cited as reasons for the public’s misunderstanding of them. Due to this misunderstanding, negative stereotypes, dread, and hostility toward Hijras emerge. The dearth of opportunities compels Hijras to pursue unanticipated paths. The present study investigates these misconceptions about Hijras. This study employs a Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) of Hijra-related concepts, conceptions, and attitudes as reported in several extensively circulated Bangladeshi newspapers. Accepting Hijras into mainstream culture, according to the study, is the first step in dispelling false beliefs about Hijras. This acceptance is, however, hindered by a pervasive misunderstanding of Hijras, their identities, issues, and challenges. If identified through a Critical Discourse Analysis of Hijra depiction in specific newspapers, this misunderstanding has the potential to assist us in unlearning fear, prejudice, and hatred against Hijras. Consequently, we may be able to develop more efficient approaches and policies for Hijras.
 

Keywords: 

Stereotypes; Representation; Hijras; Critical Discourse Analysis; Rehabilitation

 

2022: Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles

• “Critical Theories for Social Changes:  A Brief Proposal”. Quest Journals Journal of Research in Humanities and Social Science. Volume 10, Issue 6. Indexed in DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals, J-Gate, and Index Copernicus.

 

ABSTRACT

While the academia is producing critical theories and students and scholars are receiving and applying them in analyses of texts, a grave concern emerges at least for two reasons: whether these critical theories are committed to social changes and whether these critical theories gets applied in the struggle for social justice. This article examines the recent trajectories, trends, and tendencies of critical theories in academia and suggests what kind of critical theories can be adopted for social changes. 

Keywords: 

Critical Theories; Social Justice; dialectic; spatiotemporal

• “Appropriation of Micropolitics by the Neoliberal States: A Theoretical Intervention”. International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science. Volume 10, Issue 7.  Indexed in Crossref, Semantic Scholar,  ScienceGate, and ERA: Australian Research Council. 
   

ABSTRACT

The article focuses on the reception of micropolitics by the neoliberal nation states. It argues that the neoliberal states in recent times have combined strategies and tactics to maintain their grip on their citizens. It is a theoretical intervention in the sense that while Scott (2008) and Certeau (2011) identify micropolitics in the everyday life of the poor and the weak, the present chapter argues that even the neoliberal states apply micropolitics and tactics. In fact, only within this combination, within dialectical relations between strategies and tactics, any tactic is worth pursuing—an issue this paper foregrounds. Drawing upon Mbembe’s ideas, this chapter focuses on the contexts of necrocapitalism within which the neoliberal states deploy tactics. This article also identifies differentiation—how the neoliberal state keeps its citizens divided and separated.

Keywords: Neoliberalism; Micropolitics; Necropower; Strategies; Tactics 
 

• “Reception of Micropolitics in American Studies: Contexts and Concerns.” International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science. Volume 6, Issue 9. Indexed in Crossref, Semantic Scholar, ScienceGate, and ERA: Australian Research Council. 
   

 

ABSTRACT

 

The present paper critiques the recurring fetishization and glorification of micropolitics in social justice projects as they get theorized, received, and celebrated in academia, especially in American studies. Presenting the theoretical contexts of micropolitics, the paper critiques American studies scholars’ investment in those theoretical concepts that, in the name of evading manipulation, reinforces subservience for the weak and the oppressed.

Keywords: 

Micropolitics, American Studies, Power, Resistance
 

• A Query into Infrapolitics in American Studies. Quest Journal of Research in Humanities and Social Science. Volume 10. Issue 11. Indexed in DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals, J-Gate, and Index Copernicus.

 

ABSTRACT

 

This paper examines infrapolitics as celebrated by some American Studies scholars. Infrapolitics are small acts that are believed to usher in social justice. The present paper emerges from an uncertainty and disbelief in the efficacy of infrapolitics. The paper argues that infrapolitics must undergo spatialization and thus help a society progress towards social justice.

Keywords: 

Infrapolitics; American Studies; Spatialization; Social Justice
 

2019: Book Chapter 

• “Homophobia, Transphobia and Homonationalist Gaze: Challenges of Bangladeshi Homosexuals and Transgenders in Migration”.  Global Perspectives of Gendered Youth Migration: Subjectivities and Modalities. Ed. Glenda Tibe Bonifacio. Policy: Bristol University Press. ISBN: 978-1447340195 https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/global-perspectives-of-gendered-youth-migration

 

ABSTRACT 

In Bangladesh, people aged 18–35 years are identified as young (Vogel, 2015). Many gays, lesbians, hijras, and transgenders live in Bangladesh, which is predominantly Muslim. This chapter mainly focuses on young Bangladeshi homosexuals, hijras, and transgenders. It examines their struggles as they tend to migrate from rural to urban areas, and from the urban areas to overseas, in a bid to find safer spaces to live. To understand their migration patterns, the push and pull factors are important considerations. While these factors are common ways of tracing any migration pattern (Bradnock and Williams, 2014; Mishra et al, 2015), this chapter argues that these factors provide understanding to some geopolitically different societal challenges they confront. These challenges reveal interlinked frames in negotiating strategic violence: inter-societal homophobia, homonationalist queer friendliness, Islamophobia, nation-states’ strategic sympathy and its homo-neoliberal abandonment.

Keywords: 

Migration; Queer; Youth; Homophobia; Transphobia; Islamophobia 
 

2018: Book chapter

• "Bangladesh" Views from Inside:Languages, Cultures, and Schooling for K‐12 Educators.Joy Egbert and Gisela Ernst-Slavit, eds. Information Age Publishing, NC, USA. ISBN:978-1641130202.

  

ABSTRACT

Dramatic demographic changes in the United States are visible in the classroom today. English Language Learners (ELLs) have been increasing whose primary language is not English. About 8.4% of all public students are ELL student. These dramatic trends lead to the critical need of the literacy of promise (Spears-Button & Powel, 2009). Majority of students are Spanish where 56% of schools are represented from 3 to 50 different language backgrounds (Durgunoglu and Hughes, 2010). For almost all urban areas (such as California, Hawaii, and New Mexico),ethno– linguistically diverse students are majority of all school children in the states. Many of these students are failing to meet academic achievement levels below that of other students. Consequently, these have massive influence on economy and competitive place in the world. Thus, poor educational achievement might affect the quality of future generations. This chapter provides an idea for teachers being aware of background, culture, and language of Bangladesh. This chapter would be helpful for teachers to integrate culturally responsive teaching (CRT) strategies for advancing future educational achievement in USA.

Keywords: 

TESOL; Culturally Responsive Teaching (CRT); diversity; English Language Teaching; Critical-affective Pedagogy 
 

 

2016: Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles

• “Beyond Metropolises: Hybridity in Transnational Contexts.”  Disclosure: A Journal of Social Theory. Volume 25,  Issue1. http://uknowledge.uky.edu/disclosure/vol25/iss1/14/

 

ABSTRACT 

 

Hybridity discourses have undergone sharp criticism in academia, and one finds many of these criticisms in literary and cultural studies, postcolonial theories, and in the postcolonial and global studies. This paper attempts to critique hybridity discourses from an interdisciplinary perspective. Thematically, it explores how bilateral relations within a transnational context are impacted by hybridity discourses. It examines how the relationship between a developing country and an imperialist one is impacted by hybridity discourse and shows how certain kinds of knowledge production in academia can have disempowering effects on countries vulnerable to neocolonial intervention. This paper locates the nature of epistemic violence embedded in the postcolonial hybridity discourses and investigates their relationship with certain issues of development and environmental justice in a country like Bangladesh. Since the worst sufferers of epistemic violence are “third world” countries, as their intellectual, cultural, and physical spaces carry the toll in the form of “brainwashing,” cultural bankruptcy, and economic-environmental manipulation by IMF/World Bank policies, this paper considers mainly the issues of Bangladesh while alluding to similar crises in other Asian and African countries.

Keywords: 

Hybridity; third space; imperialism; neoliberalism; racial capital

 

• “Critical Theory for the 21st Century: Game for Change, Dance for Future, and Rhythm for Revolution.” Heathwood Journal of Critical Theory. Volume 1, Issue 2. February, 2016. 

2015: Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles 

• “White Gaze Saving Brown Queers: Homonationalism Meets Imperialist Islamophobia,” Limina: A Journal of Historical and Cultural Studies, Volume 21.1 (2015). http://www.limina.arts.uwa.edu.au/volumes/21.1/sharif

 

ABSTRACT

In asylum cases, some western countries use global gay discourses and teleological developmental narratives to (mis)recognise non-Western queerness. This paper investigates a number of queer asylum cases to explain how the set conditions for a queer asylum status in those countries tend to reinforce homonationalist ideologies underpinned by global gay discourses. Consequently, some non-Western queers are compelled to bring forth a particular brand of personal disaster spectacle that validates ingrained imperialist Islamophobia in host countries and beyond. The paper argues that under the rubrics of provable persecution, the shock value in the personal disaster spectacle of Muslim queers in their home countries is utilized to validate another pervasive violence: reinforcement of Islamophobic ideologies that are used to justify the ‘war on terror’.

Keywords:

 asylum; queer migration; human rights; disaster spectacle; homonationalism

 

• “Queering the Reform/Revolution Dyad: A Spatiotemporal Dialectic,” Catalyst: A Social Justice Forum: Vol. 6: Issue 1. 11-26. http://trace.tennessee.edu/catalyst/vol6/iss1/4

 

ABSTRACT

 

All ages deal with the debate between reform and revolution in the contexts of their distinctive challenges, problems, and prospects. While reflecting on today’s socio political realities in the U.S., this paper identifies a theoretical stagnancy in academia that deters any radical praxis for revolution. Addressing some key theoretical stances within the reform/revolution dyad, the paper argues that any criticism of “revolution in a linear future” is no easy approval for “reform in a static present” either. Also, replacing the “apocalyptic future” with the “here and now” of the progressive present is perhaps inadequate without critically reflecting on the “quality” of the “present”. This paper does not recommend any specific prescriptive means but outlines a speculative prospect of “here and now” for revolution. It critiques theoretical stances of a number of postcolonial and poststructuralist thinkers and argues that these stances eventually get appropriated within the hegemonic reform-based justice underpinning neoliberalism. It argues that using the work of Henry Lefebvre, David Harvey, and Doreen Massey, a spatiotemporal dialectic for revolution can be developed which in turn also embraces revolutionary visions of Alain Badiou. The paper explains how this dialectic reveals an inadequacy in the politics of reform and adjustment within theories of James C Scott, Michel de Certeau, Homi K Bhabha, Michel Foucault and Gilles Deleuze. It shows how liberal justice discourses that routinely promote reform in an attempt to misguide revolutionary potentials manage to find a comfort zone in the politics of difference. Specifically, the paper invests in the interstice between two types of theories to queer the longstanding reform-revolution dyad.

Keywords: 

Spatial Politics; Resistance; Reform; Revolution; Dialectic 
 

• “From Fragmented Resistance to Historical Riot,” Heathwood Journal of Critical Theory:   Power Violence and Non-violence. Vol. 1, Issue 1. 46 65 .http://www.heathwoodpress.com/heathwood-journal-of-critical-theory-issue-1-power-violence-and-non-violence/

 

ABSTRACT

The academia within the Military-Industrial-Complex reinforces neoliberal capitalism and deters revolution in and through its promotion of inadequate forms of resistance. The politics of fear within the biopolitical management of life chances both disciplines people and empties out their capacity to engage with any radical social movement. As a reaction to this tragic dovetailing of their desire and scope to protest, people have to take recourse in and through fragmented resistance or micropolitics theorized by Scott, Certeau, Bhabha, Foucault and Deleuze. With the postmodern rejection of the grand
narratives, the academia has participated in fetishizing fragmented resistance. At this conjecture, the present paper critiques these fetishized forms of resistance. It argues that the fragmented resistance recommends compromise with and adaptation to the manipulative system on the excuse of prioritizing survival. Also, the paper develops a spatiotemporal dialectic using which the WikiLeaks and new social movements can attempt for radical changes and revolutions.

 

Keywords: Academia; Micropolitics; Social Movement; Revolution 

 

• “Cultural Subversion in Billboard War on War on Terror: Resistance or Recuperation?” in Panini, Volume 6. 91-112.
  
   

ABSTRACT


A recent resurgence of cultural jamming in the USA thematically goes beyond the customary concern of jammers with counter-consumerism to include a set of intertwined issues of socio-political and socio-religious concerns. I would like to categorize and conceptualize this particular type of cultural jamming as Billboard War on War on Terror (BWWT). The present paper examines this new turn in cultural jamming. It also explains the genealogy of cultural jamming in general, history of billboard war and its re-appropriation by both cultural jammers and political leaders. In addition, it shows how some cultural jammers express their political concerns on the debate on war on terror. Finally, it evaluates the implication of this new kind of billboard war to understand whether it can be taken as successful resistance or just another means of recuperation in the US cultural context. 

Keywords: 
Cultural Jamming; Counter- consumerism; War on Terror; Resistance; Billboard War 

 

• “State of Academia: Understanding Power and Counter-power,” in State of Power 2015: An Annual Anthology of Global Power and Resistance. Nick Buxton and Madeleine Bélanger Dumontier, eds. The Transnational Institute, 2015.

ABSTRACT

The academia within the Military-Industrial-Complex reinforces neoliberal capitalism and deters revolution in and through its promotion of inadequate forms of resistance. The politics of fear within the biopolitical management of life chances both disciplines people and empties out their capacity to engage with any radical social movement. As a reaction to this tragic dovetailing of their desire and scope to protest, people have to take recourse in and through fragmented resistance or micropolitics theorized by Scott, Certeau, Bhabha, Foucault and Deleuze. With the postmodern rejection of the grand narratives, the academia has participated in fetishizing fragmented resistance. But the present paper critiques these fetishized forms of resistance. It argues that the fragmented resistance recommends compromise with and adaptation to the manipulative system on the excuse of prioritizing survival. Also, the paper develops a spatiotemporal dialectic using which the WikiLeaks and new social movements can attempt for radical changes and revolution.

Keywords:
Military-Industrial Complex; Biopolitics; Fragmented Resistance; Fetishization; Spatiotemporal Dialectic 
 

2009-2014 (Selected) 

•  “Vesuvius in America: Rich and Dickinson,” The Jahangirnagar Review, Part C, Faculty of Arts and Humanties, 2014. 

 

ABSTRACT

The thematic exploration of both Emily Dickinson and Adrienne Rich, two American poets, center on the conceptualization about and materialization of women’s identity and their history in the patricidal structure of the society. Dickinson denigrates the marginalization of women in all spheres of society while Rich takes the marginalization as an erasure of the true history of women. She tries to unearth or rewrite women’s past so that the true representation of women can be made. At the same time, she wishes for a better future for women and for the world. This paper, relying on textual criticism of their poetry and essays, investigates into the points of convergence and departure in Dickinson and Rich as poets. This comparative study tries to pencil in the outskirts between Dickinson and Rich so that we can look at them in some sort of brighter light. 

Keywords: 

Marginalization; Phallagocentrism; Erasure; Rewriting History 

•  “Feminism versus Postfeminism: Postfeminists’ Quest for Groundless Solidarity,” Harvest: Jahangirnagar Studies in Language and Literature, Department of English, Jahangirnagar University, 2013. 
• “Representation of Silence in Literature,” Harvest: Jahangirnagar Studies in Language and Literature, Department of English, Jahangirnagar University, 2012. 

ABSTRACT

New epistemological possibilities and aesthetic pleasure can be attained from poets’ recognition of everyday language’s failures and silences which  has been a recurring theme in literature from pre- to post-modernity, and is a main emphasis of writers as diverse as George Herbert, Samuel Beckett, Virginia Woolf, Dionne Brand, and Judith Butler. The perception of silence and its expression in poetry has been so diverse that no attempt is enough to structure them. However, searching for a common pattern may reveal the recurring anxieties in poets about the illusive reality of human life, the existential crisis, the manipulation embedded in the texture of linguistic exchanges, and so on. Poetry in this sense appears as counter-discursive, often challenging complacency in ascribing meaning to life and reinforcing our desire for the ceaseless struggle to reshape realities. Poetry reveals what other discourses artfully hides or fail to shed light on. This paper, with particular focus on poetry, music, drama, and critical theory, aims to explore the connection between a poetic desire to break language into silence in the interest of understanding the relationship between the interior and exterior of both language and subjectivity.

Keywords:

Poetics; counter-discourse; representation; silence; textual criticism 

 

• “The Birth of the Fourth Reader,” Harvest: Jahangirnagar Studies in Language and Literature, Dhaka: Department of English, Jahangirnagar University, 2010.
• “Hughes’ Crow: A Prophet in the Fallen World,” Harvest: Jahangirnagar Studies in Language and Literature, Dhaka: Department of English, Jahangirnagar University, 2009.
  
  
  
  Critical Works in Bengali 
  
  Raihan Sharif writes on critical theories on diverse issues including language, power, gender, violence, social death, spatial politics, ethnicity, and ecocriticism. 

 

• ‘আন্তঃ বর্গীয়তা’ পরিচয়: একুশ শতকে বৈষম্য নিরসনের পাঠ ও বিবেচনা, চিন্তাযান: তত্ত্ব চর্চার ষাণ্মাষিক, জুন ২০১৮
• জৈব-রাজনৈতিক ক্ষমতা এবং মারণ- ক্ষমতা: ক্ষমতা প্রকৌশল এবং এর রূপান্তর, জানুয়ারি ২০১৯
• লেফেভের স্পেসত্রয়ী, বিমূর্ত ও ভেদাত্মক স্পেস, ডিসেম্বর ২০১৯
• নব্য বস্তুবাদ: প্রেক্ষাপট, প্রবণতা, সমালোচনা, ২০২৫ 
  
   

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