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Shazia Sadaf

Associate Professor & Graduate Program Advisor

Shazia Sadaf received a PhD in English Literature and Language from the University of London, and an MA in English from King’s College London, United Kingdom. She earned a second doctorate in Postcolonial Studies at Western University in Canada, with a primary research interest in the field of post 9/11 human rights literature.

Her research expertise lies in analysing human rights as an evolving linguistic and literary discourse, extending the field beyond traditional social science frameworks. Her work offers an expanded understanding of the various ways in which literature and other narrative modes (media, memoir, documentary, film, art, music) engage with the past and current political landscapes around issues of human rights and social justice, and the role of these narratives in representation, spectatorship, and power.

Shazia Sadaf is also Associate Editor, Journal of postcolonial Writing, Taylor & Francis, UK.

Professional Awards

Cover of "Contemporary Pakistani Speculative Fiction and the Global Imaginary"

Book
Sadaf, Shazia, and Aroosa Kanwal. 2023. Contemporary Pakistani Speculative Fiction and the Global Imaginary: Democratising Human Futures. New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003256427

Book Chapters

Sadaf, Shazia. 2026 (forthcoming). “On the Cusp of South Asia: Situating Pakistani Canadian Diaspora Identities.” In Umme Al-Wazedi and Aparajita De (Eds.) Whose South Asia: The Politics of Inclusion in Representations of Belonging and Identity. New York: Routledge.

Sadaf, Shazia. 2021. “Human Dignity, the War on Terror, and Post 9/11 Pakistani Literature.” In M. C. Frank and P. K. Malreddy (Eds.) Narratives of the War on Terror: Global Perspectives. Routledge.

Sadaf, Shazia. 2019. “Biographies of Violence and the Violence of Biographies: Writing about Rape in Pakistan.” In P. K. Malreddy and A. S. Purakayastha (Eds.), Violence in South Asia: Contemporary Perspectives, 100-114). Routledge.

Sadaf, Shazia. 2018. “Chapter 12: Divergent Discourses: Human Rights and Contemporary Pakistani Anglophone Literature.” In A. Kanwal and S. Aslam (Eds.), Routledge Companion to Pakistani Anglophone Writing (pp.138-150). Routledge.

Selected Peer Reviewed Journal Articles

Sadaf, Shazia. 2026 (forthcoming). “‘Desi-Queer’ Identity Quest: Heeding Pakistani Immigrant Voices in Canada.” Special issue: Migrant Portrayal: Precarity, Displacement, and Human Rights in South Asia. Journal of Postcolonial Writing.

Sadaf, Shazia. 2022. “Benevolent violence: Bombs, aid, and human rights in Mohammad Hanif’s Red Birds.” Special issue: Global Literature and Violence, Postcolonial Text, 17(2-3), 1-17. https://www.postcolonial.org/index.php/pct/article/view/2740

Sadaf, Shazia. 2020. “‘We are all migrants through time’: History and Geography in Mohsin Hamid’s Exit West.” Special issue: Writing Brexit: Colonial remains. Journal of Postcolonial Writing, 56(5), 636-647. DOI:10.1080/17449855.2020.1820667

Sadaf, Shazia. 2018. “Human dignity, the War on Terror, and post 9/11 Pakistani literature.” Special Issue. Global Responses to War on Terror. European Journal of English Studies, 22(2), 115-127. DOI: 10.1080/13825577.2018.1478255

Sadaf, Shazia. 2017. “I am Malala: Human rights, and the politics of production, marketing, and reception of the post 9/11 memoir.” Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies, 19(6), 855-871. DOI:10.1080/1369801X.2017.1347053

Saher, Najma, and Shazia Sadaf. 2017. “We are what we eat in A House for Mr. Biswas and The Inheritance of Loss.” Journal of Humanities & Social Sciences, 25(1), 73.

Sadaf, Shazia. 2014. “Daniyal Mueenuddin’s dying men.” Special Issue: Mapping South Asian Masculinities: Men and Political Crises. South Asian History and Culture, 5(4), 490-504. DOI: 10.1080/19472498.2014.936207

Sadaf, Shazia, & Mujeeb Rahman. 2011. “Postcolonial loss of identity and the food metaphor.” Journal of Humanities & Social Sciences, 19(2), 105-116.

Sadaf, Shazia. 2008. “Colour play in Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things.” ARIEL: A Review of International English Literature, 39(3), 73-84.

Sadaf, Shazia. 2010. “Woolf’s To the Lighthouse: A Word about the Title.” Journal of Humanities & Social Sciences, 18(1).

Sadaf, Shazia. 2009. “Dual Colonialism in A House for Mr. Biswas.” Journal of Humanities & Social Sciences, 17(2).

Sadaf, Shazia. 2009. “Changes in Late Anglo-Indian Phraseology.” Journal of Humanities & Social Sciences, 17(1).

Sadaf, Shazia. 2008. “Tennyson’s In Memoriam: Balancing spiritual and physical evolution.” Journal of Humanities & Social Sciences, 16(2).

Sadaf, Shazia. 2008. “The vocabulary of aesthetics in Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse.” Journal of Humanities & Social Sciences,16(1).

Book Reviews:

Sadaf, Shazia. (forthcoming 2025). Rewriting Islam: Decolonialism, Justice, and Contemporary Literature. Hasnul Insani Djohar. ESC (English Studies in Canada). Columbus: The Ohio State University Press.

Sadaf Shazia. 2024. “Pakistan Desires: Queer Futures Elsewhere.” Kasmani, Omar, ed. Utopian Studies. Duke University Press.

Sadaf, Shazia. 2023. “Isolated incident.” Mariam Pirbhai. Journal of Postcolonial Writing, DOI: 10.1080/17449855.2023.2179474

Encyclopedia Articles

Sadaf, Shazia. 2023. “Usman T. Malik.” The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 10.3.2:  Pakistani and Bangladeshi Writing and Culture. First published 13 October 2023. https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=15061

Sadaf, Shazia. 2021. “Khaled Husseini: A Thousand Splendid Suns.” The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.4:  American (US) Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary, 1945-present. 30 July 2021. https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=23018

Sadaf, Shazia. 2019. “Jamil Ahmed: The Wandering Falcon.” The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 10.3.2:  Pakistani and Bangladeshi Writing and Culture. 07 January 2019. https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=38846

Courses

HRSJ 1101            Critical Issues in Social Justice Activism

HRSJ 3302          Culture, Religion and Gender Rights

HRSJ 5901           Critical approaches to Human Rights and Social Justice

HRSJ 5306          Terrorism and Islamophobia

HRSJ 5304          Narratives of Human Rights

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