Shandana Waheed

Shandana Waheed holds a B.A. in Political Science and History from Forman Christian University (2016) and an M.A. in Near Eastern Studies from New York University (2018), where she was a Falak Sufi Scholar. She has taught as a Lecturer at the University of Management and Technology (Critical Thinking) and Punjab University (History of Modern South Asia). Her research focuses on architectural heritage, nation-state formations, and the socio-political dimensions of memory, space, and ruination in South Asia, particularly in Rawalpindi. She explores how heritage sites mediate post-colonial identities and national narratives.

Her work engages with themes such as imperial interactions, materiality, and the politics of heritage preservation. She emphasizes the interplay between urban landscapes, local communities, and historical palimpsests in shaping cultural and political dynamics in Pakistan.

Shandana’s scholarly contributions include anthropological studies of pre-partition religious buildings and Hindu/Sikh evacuee properties in Rawalpindi, highlighting their contested legacies in the postcolonial nation-state. Her research has been recognized through the Falak Sufi Scholarship, underscoring its significance in Near Eastern Studies.