Grantee Wins Funding for Study on Infrastructure, Agitation, and Resistance in Pakistan
Anthropologist Bramsh Khan's Research Highlights Impact of Infrastructure Development on Baloch People
Anthropologist Bramsh Khan is delving into the complexities of state-led infrastructural development in Balochistan, Pakistan, with a particular focus on the Baloch people. Her research aims to question who defines "development" and who pays the price for it.
Khan's work has been awarded recognition with a Wenner-Gren Foundation Dissertation Fieldwork Grant and a 2021 Fulbright Scholarship. She is currently a Ph.D. candidate in social science at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs.
Khan's research centres on the stories of Baloch women, exploring their resilience, adaptations, and resistances in the face of infrastructure projects. One such project is the China Pakistan Economic Corridor and its M-8 motorway, which has significant impacts on the Baloch community.
Through her research, Khan exposes how the rhetoric of development and modernity can obscure violence and destruction. She highlights how infrastructure can isolate and disrupt communities, leading to displacement and disruption of livelihoods.
In addition to her academic work, Khan is collaborating with emerging Baloch filmmakers on a film project to document the experiences of Baloch women. This initiative helps displaced women reclaim autonomy and sustain their families, and can be seen as a form of resistance against cultural erasure.
Khan's work has been described as powerful and relevant by Dan Olson-Bang, director of professional and career development in the Graduate School. Olson-Bang expresses enjoyment in working with Khan to craft her proposal.
While Khan's research stands alone, it is part of a broader academic conversation on state infrastructure, development, and its effects on indigenous or marginalized communities. Other anthropologists studying similar topics may include scholars of political ecology, anthropology of development, and critical infrastructure studies. Notable figures who have researched related themes in different contexts include Akhil Gupta and James Scott.
To identify anthropologists specifically focusing on the impacts of state-led infrastructure development on the Baloch people, one might want to explore academic journals on South Asian anthropology, development studies, or look at research groups in universities in Pakistan or institutions focusing on borderland and resource conflicts.
Khan intends to use the Wenner-Gren grant to deepen and expand her dissertation through multimodal storytelling, including a film project that aims to convey the experiences of Baloch women in a more visceral way through visual and auditory means.
[1] Balochistan is a region located in southwestern Asia, encompassing parts of present-day Pakistan and Iran. It is home to the Baloch people, a diverse ethnic group with a rich cultural heritage.
On her quest to delve into state-led infrastructural development's effects on the Baloch people, Bramsh Khan utilizes her research to question the definition and costs of "development." This journey also extends to education and self-development, as she collaborates with Baloch filmmakers to create a film project documenting Baloch women's experiences, a form of resistance against cultural erasure.
