Postdoctoral Scholars

Mariam Karim is a Global Postdoctoral Scholar at the Institute for Advanced Study in the Global South at Northwestern University in Qatar (#IAS_NUQ). She completed her PhD at the University of Toronto's Faculty of Information (iSchool) and the Women and Gender Studies Institute (WGSI). She served as an inaugural graduate fellow at the Critical Digital Humanities Initiative and was the recipient of the Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) doctoral award. She holds an Honours BA in Visual Culture & Communications from the University of Toronto and a MA in Cultural Studies & Critical Theory from McMaster University. She situates contemporary uses of digital media through historical inquiry and studies Arabic mass media in the context of media imperialism and colonialism. To do this, she follows Arab women's expansive mass media practices, contributions, and ideas from the 20th century as central points of reference. Her interests lie at the intersections of multilingual media, information, gender, political theory, translation, infrastructure, historical, archival, visual, and literary studies, and decolonization.

Chafic Najem is a Global Postdoctoral Scholar at the Institute for Advanced Study in the Global South at Northwestern University in Qatar (#IAS_NUQ). He received his PhD in Media and Communication Studies from Stockholm University, complemented by a post-master's degree from the Royal Institute of Art, Sweden. Both his MA and BA degrees are from the American University of Beirut. Chafic's research examines prisoners' illicit media practices and the smuggling and use of digital media technologies into carceral spaces, particularly in Lebanon. He deals with questions of social movements and mobilization, media witnessing and amateur-recorded testimonies, and visual culture in relation to political and media practices in and from carceral spaces. His scholarly contributions span diverse areas such as media and communication, documentary studies, and artistic research, including recent publications in Media, Culture, and Society and Panoptikum. Prior to joining NU-Q, he held teaching roles at Stockholm University, Uppsala University, and Södertörn University. Chafic's postdoctoral position is funded by Carnegie Corporation of New York through the Institute's Arab Information and Media Studies (AIMS) project. 

Harsha Man Maharjan is a Global Postdoctoral Scholar at the Institute for Advanced Study in the Global South at Northwestern University in Qatar (#IAS_NUQ). His current research centers on the critical evaluation of the social, political, technological, and economic implications of 'smart cards' in Nepal. Previously, he worked as a senior researcher at Martin Chautari, a research institute in Kathmandu, beginning his research in 2008. He has coauthored two books and coedited three books in Nepali, and his work on digital journalism, media/digital practices, development communication, media/digital policies, and media history has been published in various international and national journals and books. He has taught courses on mass communication theories, South Asian media, media industries, media research, and thesis writing at Tribhuvan University and Purbanchal University in Nepal. He earned his PhD from Kyoto University in 2019 and served as the Academic/Research Head at Polygon College in Nepal from December 2020 to May 2023.