Waqas Butt

Waqas Butt is an Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Toronto, specializing in the political life of infrastructure in contemporary Pakistan. His work intersects waste systems, caste dynamics, labor studies, and urbanization.

• Research Focus: Examines socio-political processes in infrastructure through waste labor, caste hierarchies, and urban ecological transformations.
• Key Publications: Author of Life Beyond Waste: Work and Infrastructure in Urban Pakistan (Stanford University Press, 2023). Co-authored studies on South Asian urban climates and caste-based labor inequities.
• Methodology: Combines ethnographic fieldwork with historical analysis, emphasizing materiality, labor value, and political ecology frameworks.

His recent studies explore the Indus River Basin’s socio-ecological changes and global comparisons between infrastructure development in the Global North and South.