Case study on Pakistan
Kazmi will be leading the BEYOND sub-project focusing on the relationship between Pakistan and the international refugee regime. As part of the postdoctoral fellowship, she will be spending time conducting field research in Pakistan and exploring the UNHCR archives in Geneva.
Interdisciplinary research interests
Kazmi describes her research interests as interdisciplinary at the intersection of politics, law, and development studies. These interests are reflected in her strong academic and professional record.
Kazmi holds a PhD in Law (2018) and an LLM in ‘Law in Development’ (2003) from the University of Warwick. She also studied for a Masters in Political Science from the University of Karachi, Pakistan.
Until recently, she was Assistant Professor at the School of Law, University of Warwick, UK. Here, she taught undergraduate and postgraduate students in courses including Introduction to Islamic law, Legal Theory, Gender and the Law, and Women’s Human Rights and Global Justice.
Kazmi also has broad experience from the non-profit sector:
– Prior to joining academia, I worked with voluntary sector organisations in England and Pakistan in several research, campaigning, and policy roles, she tells.
Among other positions, she served as Head of Policy and Research at Voice4Change England – a London based voluntary sector organization for the Black and Asian Minority Ethnic communities. In Pakistan, she has worked on women’s human rights and democracy promotion.
Exploring the refugee regime in Pakistan
Kazmi was attracted by the BEYOND project’s interdisciplinary and empirically grounded research approach:
– I am very excited to join the BEYOND project because of its interdisciplinary and empirical research approach into the concerns of refugees in states which have not yet ratified the Refugee Convention, she explains.
– My research focuses on Afghan Refugees in Pakistan. I seek to employ an interdisciplinary qualitative research approach into examining the socio-legal and political factors that have shaped Pakistan’s treatment of Afghan refugees for over 40 years, Kazmi says.
Kazmi will also be examining the UNHCR-Pakistan partnership in providing protection to Afghan Refugees. Proficient in both English and Urdu, she is well equipped to conduct field research in Pakistan:
– In researching the reasons behind Pakistan’s non-ratification of the Refugee Convention, my academic strength lies in conducting empirically grounded fieldwork research in Pakistan. I am proficient in Urdu and English, Kazmi says.
Life in Oslo
To take up the BEYOND postdoctoral position, Kazmi will soon relocate to Oslo. She is looking forward to see what city life in Oslo has to offer.
– I was born and brought up in Karachi, which is one of the biggest and most cosmopolitan cities in Asia. After moving to the UK, I have mainly lived around the West Midlands. I am quite excited to be back in a dynamic city life of Oslo.