Speaker

Dr. Yasmin Saikia

Dr. Yasmin Saikia is the Hardt-Nickachos Chair in Peace Studies at the Center for the Study of Religion and Conflict and Professor of History at Arizona State University. A leading historian of South Asia, her research focuses on memory, identity, and the intersections of religion, gender, and violence in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. Her scholarship explores Islamic values of peace, histories of women and war, and the lived experiences of marginalized communities. She is the author of acclaimed books such as Fragmented Memory: Struggling to be Tai-Ahom in India and Women, War, and the Making of Bangladesh: Remembering 1971. Currently, she is writing a trilogy on “People’s Peace” and researching Muslim revolutionaries of the interwar period to examine the Muslim imagination of freedom under colonial rule. Saikia’s work advances peace studies by foregrounding historical narratives, cultural agency, and ethical responsibility across South Asia and the Muslim world.