Ayesha Omer is an Assistant Professor of digital futures in the department of Anthropology at York University. Her interdisciplinary scholarship broadly examines how infrastructure technologies mediate sociopolitical life. Her book project, Networks of Dust, explores issues of technological mediation, environmental relations, and political sovereignty with respect to Chinese infrastructure in the indigenous borderlands of the Pakistani state, as part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) — a flagship project of China’s global Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

Her research draws on multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork, research in Pakistani state archives, visual analysis of digital Chinese and Pakistani media content, CPEC policy documents, and has been supported by several grants, including the American Association of University Women (AAUW) International Doctoral Fellowship and the Global Dissertation Fellowship at NYU Shanghai.

Ayesha Omer completed her Ph.D. from New York University and held postdoctoral fellowships at the Society of Fellows in the Humanities at the University of Southern California, and the Center for Advanced Research in Global Communication at the University of Pennsylvania. She has a background in mixed-media and public performance art, and her artistic and academic work has appeared in or is forthcoming in ArtNow, Cityscapes, Tanqeed, Cultural Studies, the Palgrave Handbook on New Directions in Kashmir Studies, and the SAGE Handbook of Data and Society.

Research Interests

Current Courses

Term	Course Number	Section	Title	Type
Summer 2024	AP/ANTH3040 6.0	A	The Anthropology of Digital Media	ONLN

Upcoming Courses

Term	Course Number	Section	Title	Type
Winter 2025	AP/ANTH2120 3.0	M	Media, Representation and Culture	LECT
Winter 2025	GS/ANTH5220 3.0	M	Technoscientific Cultures	SEMR

Ayesha Omer is an Assistant Professor of digital futures in the department of Anthropology at York University. Her interdisciplinary scholarship broadly examines how infrastructure technologies mediate sociopolitical life. Her book project, Networks of Dust, explores issues of technological mediation, environmental relations, and political sovereignty with respect to Chinese infrastructure in the indigenous borderlands of the Pakistani state, as part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) — a flagship project of China’s global Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

Her research draws on multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork, research in Pakistani state archives, visual analysis of digital Chinese and Pakistani media content, CPEC policy documents, and has been supported by several grants, including the American Association of University Women (AAUW) International Doctoral Fellowship and the Global Dissertation Fellowship at NYU Shanghai.

Ayesha Omer completed her Ph.D. from New York University and held postdoctoral fellowships at the Society of Fellows in the Humanities at the University of Southern California, and the Center for Advanced Research in Global Communication at the University of Pennsylvania. She has a background in mixed-media and public performance art, and her artistic and academic work has appeared in or is forthcoming in ArtNow, Cityscapes, Tanqeed, Cultural Studies, the Palgrave Handbook on New Directions in Kashmir Studies, and the SAGE Handbook of Data and Society.

Degrees

PhD in Media, Culture and Communication, New York University
MA in Arts Politics, New York University, Tisch School of the Arts
BA in Political Science, Davidson College

Research Interests

Current Courses

Term	Course Number	Section	Title	Type
Summer 2024	AP/ANTH3040 6.0	A	The Anthropology of Digital Media	ONLN

Upcoming Courses

Term	Course Number	Section	Title	Type
Winter 2025	AP/ANTH2120 3.0	M	Media, Representation and Culture	LECT
Winter 2025	GS/ANTH5220 3.0	M	Technoscientific Cultures	SEMR