Dr. Waqas Sajjad slass - BNU

Dr. Waqas Sajjad is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Liberal Arts, Seeta Majeed School of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, Beaconhouse National University (BNU), Lahore. With an extensive background spanning over a decade across top academic institutions, policy think tanks, and research organizations, Dr. Sajjad's work lies at the intersection of history, religion, and social dynamics in South Asia.

Prior to joining BNU in 2023, Dr. Sajjad served as Assistant Professor and Head of the Center for Languages at the Institute of Liberal Arts, University of Management and Technology (UMT), Lahore. He has held prestigious research positions, including Senior Research Fellow and Editor for South Asia at the Institute of Strategic Studies, Islamabad (ISSI). His teaching experience spans notable universities, including Quaid-e-Azam University, Iqra University, and Bahria University in Islamabad.

Dr. Sajjad earned his Ph.D. in Cultural and Historical Studies of Religions from the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley (in a cooperative program with the University of California, Berkeley), specializing in Islam in South Asia as a Fulbright Scholar. He holds an M.Sc. in Social Policy and Development from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and a B.Sc. (Honors) in Economics with Minors in Social Sciences and Mathematics from Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS).

His research is widely published in high-impact peer-reviewed international journals, including Perspectives on Terrorism, Religion Compass, Contemporary South Asia, and South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, alongside numerous edited book chapters with Routledge, De Gruyter, and Springer. Dr. Sajjad frequently presents his research at major international academic platforms, including Yale University, the University of Chicago, the University of Exeter, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

• Ph.D. in Cultural and Historical Studies of Religions, Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley (Cooperative Program with University of California, Berkeley) (2012–2018)
  • Specialization: Islam in South Asia
• M.Sc. in Social Policy and Development, London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), UK (2008–2009)
• B.Sc. (Honors) in Economics, Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), Pakistan (2003–2007)
  • Minors: Social Sciences and Mathematics

Academic Experience

• Assistant Professor, Department of Liberal Arts, Seeta Majeed School of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, Beaconhouse National University, Lahore (2023–Present)
• Assistant Professor & Head, Center for Languages, Institute of Liberal Arts, University of Management and Technology, Lahore (2020–2023)
• Senior Research Fellow (South Asia), Institute of Strategic Studies, Islamabad (2017–2018)
• Visiting Faculty, Department of History, Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad (2017–2018)
• Research Fellow & Editor (South Asia), Institute of Strategic Studies, Islamabad (2009–2012)
• Visiting Faculty, Department of Social Sciences, Iqra University, Islamabad (2010–2011)
• Visiting Faculty, Department of Social Sciences, Bahria University, Islamabad (2010–2011)

Non-Academic & Professional Positions

• Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist, Management Systems International, Islamabad (2018–2019)
• Consultant, Verso Consulting, Islamabad (2017–2020)
• Editor, AAWAZ, DAI, Islamabad (2015–2017)
• Research Officer, Cabinet Division, Islamabad (2011–2012)
• Business Analyst, SME Business Support Fund, Lahore (2007–2008)

• Excellence in Research Award, Beaconhouse National University, Lahore (2024)
• Co-Chair, Higher Education Commission Pakistan’s Panel Review Committee for Award of Seed Fund on Education, Technology, and Sustainable Development (2022)
• Participant & Author, British Academy Writing Workshops on Colonial and Post-colonial History (2021–2022)
• Member of Advisory Board, Center for Afghanistan, Middle East and Africa, Institute of Strategic Studies, Islamabad (2020–2024)
• Fulbright Scholarship for Ph.D. Studies at Graduate Theological Union / UC Berkeley (2012–2018)
• Summer School Fellow, International Institute of Islamic Thought, Virginia, USA (2015)
• Fellow, ILEM Summer School, Mayis University, Istanbul, Turkey (2014)
• Fellow, Connaught Summer Institute on Islamic Studies, University of Toronto & Emmanuel College (2013)
• Bucerius School Fellow, Asian Forum for Global Governance, ZEIT Stiftung & Observer Research Foundation, New Delhi, India (2011)
• PJD Wiles Scholarship for Graduate Studies at the London School of Economics and Political Science (2008–2009)

Peer-Reviewed Journal Publications

1. Sajjad, W., & Co-author. (2026). The evolution of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP): Ideology, strategy, and aspirations. Perspectives on Terrorism, 20(1). | Link
2. Sajjad, W. (2024). The Barelvi movement in South Asian Islam. Religion Compass, 18(4). | Link
3. Sajjad, W. (2023). Contesting the Milad: Deobandis and Barelvis in British India and contemporary Pakistan. Contemporary South Asia, 31(2). | Link
4. Sajjad, W. (2023). Writing history in Deobandi–Barelvi polemics: Conflicting views of Shah Ismail and Fazl–e–Haq Khairabadi. South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, 46(3). | Link
5. Sajjad, W. (2023). Prioritizing religious freedoms: Islam, Pakistan, and the human rights discourse. Muslim World Journal of Human Rights. | Link
6. Sajjad, W. (2019). Current status of insurgencies in Northeast India. Islamabad Papers, 43. Institute of Strategic Studies, Islamabad.
7. Sajjad, W. (2018). Examining the state of the Muslim minority under the BJP 2014-2017. Strategic Studies, 38(4), 19–36.
8. Sajjad, W., & Co-authors. (2011). Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, Jamat-ud-Dawa and the case for a Pakistani narrative. Strategic Studies, 31(3), 59–90.
9. Sajjad, W. (2011). Pakistan, the United States, and the War in Afghanistan. Strategic Studies, 31(3), 181–189.
10. Sajjad, W., & Co-authors. (2011). Perspectives on the 2010 Floods in Pakistan. Strategic Studies, 31(1&2), 136–170.
11. Sajjad, W., & Co-authors. (2010). Contextualizing Kashmir in 2010. Strategic Studies, 30(3&4), 85–99.
12. Sajjad, W., & Co-authors. (2010). President Obama in India – a ‘Giant Leap Forward’? Strategic Studies, 30(3&4), 126–147.
13. Sajjad, W., & Co-authors. (2010). Pakistan and India: The search for peace. Strategic Studies, 30(1&2), 1–37.
14. Sajjad, W. (2010). External factors of instability in Pakistan: Troubled alliances in war. Strategic Studies, 30(1&2), 117–138.
15. Sajjad, W. (2009). Madrasas in Pakistan: Thinking beyond terrorism-based reforms. Strategic Studies, 29(4), 1–28.

Book Chapters

1. Sajjad, W. (2025). History writing and the Pakistani Ulama: Competing for legitimacy. In I. Dubey (Ed.), Remembrance, Forgetting and Utterance. Routledge.
2. Sajjad, W. (2024). Mufti Tariq Masood and the performance of religious speech: Social media and religious discourses in Pakistan. In A. A. Akca, M. Feise-Nasr, L. Stenske, & A. Süer (Eds.), Practices of Islamic Preaching: Text, Performativity, and Materiality of Islamic Religious Speech (pp. 237–256). De Gruyter. | Link
3. Sajjad, W. (2023). Between a rock and a hard place: Pakistan’s foreign policy, Saudi Arabia, and Iran. In M. Eslami & A. V. G. Vieira (Eds.), The Arms Race in the Middle East: Contemporary Security Dynamics (pp. 293–306). Springer. | Link
4. Sajjad, W., & Co-authors. (2022). The situation in Afghanistan: A Pakistani perspective. In A. Khan (Ed.), Evolving Situation in Afghanistan (pp. 44–60). ISSI Publications.

• Presented paper, “Sufism in South Asia,” University of Management and Technology, Lahore, December 3, 2025.
• Presented paper, “Who Own Bulleh Shah? Syncretism, Capitalism, and Music in Contemporary Pakistan,” Khoja Studies: Conference IV Syncretic Traditions of South Asia: Texts, Thoughts, and Interpretations, University of Exeter, UK, July 9–10, 2025.
• Delivered lecture, “Diversity of Sufi Literature in South Asia,” Seminar discussion for graduate students, Forman Christian College University, April 25, 2025.
• Presented paper, “The Legend and Legacy of Hussam-ul-Haramain,” Sixteenth Annual Humanities and Social Sciences Conference, LUMS, April 2025.
• Presented paper, “Ahmed Raza Khan and Barelvi Memory: The Khilafat and Non-Cooperation Movements,” Fifteenth Annual Humanities and Social Sciences Conference, LUMS, April 2024.
• Presented paper, “Regulating Madrasahs in Pakistan: Finally and Forevermore?” at the 51st Annual Conference on South Asia, University of Wisconsin-Madison, October 20, 2023.
• Panelist, “Refugee Crisis in Pakistan,” Law and Politics Society, Lahore University of Management Sciences, March 18, 2023.
• Panelist, “Jinnah and the Ulama,” Panel on Muhammad Ali Jinnah, University of Management and Technology, December 26, 2022.
• Presented paper, “Fashioning Muslims through Western Eyes: Pervez Musharraf and ‘Enlightened Moderation’ in Pakistan,” Transnational Kemalism Workshop, Leeds University, May 30–31, 2022.
• Presented paper, “Preaching to the Choir and to the Bogeymen: The Ulama and Social Media in Pakistan,” organized by the Junior Research Group on Islamic Theology in Context, Berlin Institute for Islamic Theology, Humboldt-University Berlin, March 17–18, 2022.
• Presented paper, “Single National Curriculum in Pakistan: Religion, Identity, and the Making of the Ideal Muslim Citizen,” Sites and Processes of Ethical Learning: Religion and Self-Making in Asia, Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore, November 1–3, 2021.
• Presented paper, “Ownership, Opposition and Silence: The Politics of Pre-partition Ulama in the Eyes of Pakistani Ulama Today,” The Cambridge Politico – Intellectual History Workshop on Twentieth Century India, June 17–18, 2021.
• Presented paper, “The Political Philosophy of al-Farabi: Impact and Role in South Asia,” Global al-Farabi Forum, COMSTECH, December 21–22, 2020.
• Presented paper, “Shah Ismail and Fazl-e-Haq Khairabadi in Deobandi-Barelvi Polemical Histories in Pakistan,” SASNET Online Conference: Rethinking Politics of Memory in South Asia, December 9, 2020.
• Panelist, “70 Years of Madrasa Education in Pakistan: Myths, Realities and Rhetoric,” Society for Better Educational Attainment, LUMS, February 2020.
• Presented paper, “Pakistani ‘Ulama Looking Back: Writing History in Deobandi-Barelvi Debates,” Thirteenth Annual Humanities and Social Sciences Conference, LUMS, April 2019.
• Presented paper, “Bringing the Polemics Online: Social Media and the Deobandi-Barelvi Conflict,” Modern South Asia Workshop 2019, South Asian Studies Council, Yale University, February 2019.
• Delivered talk, “Dissertation Research: Deobandi-Barelvi Polemics and the ‘Ulama in Pakistan,” Management Systems International, Islamabad, November 2018.
• Presented paper, “Conflict, Tradition, and Novelty: The Modern Munazara in Pakistan,” Modern South Asia Workshop 2018, South Asian Studies Council at Yale University, Ashoka University, July 2018.
• Presented paper, “Deobandis and Barelvis in Pakistan – Debating Orthodoxy and History,” First Annual Student Symposium, Center for Islamic Studies, Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, May 2017.
• Presented paper, “The ‘Ulama in Pakistan: Manufacturing Histories and Identities,” Inhabiting the Past – Memory and Politics in Twentieth-Century South Asia, University of Chicago, November 2016.
• Presented paper, “Barelvi Identity and the Mawlid: Ahmed Raza Khan and his Opponents to Contemporary Pakistan,” Thirteenth Annual South Asian Graduate Student Conference, University of Chicago, March 2016.
• Presented paper, “Characterizations of South Asian Islam in British India: Implications of Sufi Lines of Divide,” Annual MESAAS Graduate Student Conference, Columbia University, February 2016.
• Presented paper, “Traditionalist and Secularist Perspectives of Islam in Pakistan: The Case of Ahmed Raza Khan,” Fifth Annual Islamic Studies Conference, University of California Santa Barbara, May 2015.
• Presented paper, “Ahmed Raza Khan Barelvi and the Ahl-e-Sunnat: Negotiating Power, Nationalism and Identity in British India,” Sixth Annual Graduate Historical Conference, University of Alabama, October 2014.
• Presented paper, “Institutionalised Islam in Pakistan: Barelvi and Deobandi Debates,” Mid-Western Regional American Academy of Religion Conference, Ohio Northern University, April 2014.
• Presented paper, “The Na‘t and Religious Music in Pakistan: Metaphor for Issues in Religious Civil Society,” Mid-West Regional American Academy of Religion Conference, Ohio Northern University, April 2014.
• Presented paper, “Christians in Pakistan,” Center for Asian Studies, Graduate Theological Union, December 2013.
• Presented paper, “Christians and Muslim Minorities in Pakistan: The Missing Discourse,” Thirtieth Annual Conference of the American Council for the Study of Islamic Societies (ACSIS), Seton Hall University, April 2013.
• Presented paper, “Pakistan and India – the Interrupted Dialogue,” Conference on Pakistan-China Relationship: The Year of Friendship 2011, Islamabad, January 2011.
• Presented paper, “Pakistan, Afghanistan and the War on Terror,” Tenth ISSI-IPIS Bilateral Dialogue, Institute of Political and International Studies, Tehran, July 2011.
• Presented paper, “South Asian Security Challenges and New Strategies in the Af-Pak War,” Conference on South Asian Security and Regional Cooperation, Kunming, organized by Yunnan University & East-West Center, March 2010.

• Email: waqas.sajjad@bnu.edu.pk