Dr. Umar is currently working on a book manuscript which explores the relationship (and critical distinctions) between caste and racial hierarchies, and how these entanglements-along with gender and class dynamics-inform the figure of the Muslim in Indian and global politics. Parallel to the aforementioned project, Dr Umar is also a Principal Investigator for a SSHRC IDG funded project that explores the histories, politics, and theories behind the idea of the diasporic/exiled "public intellectual." This in-depth research seeks to examine the systematic persecution of scholars-at-risk from diverse marginalized communities in the age of rising social media disinformation, far right global populism, and the changing political landscape of 'multicultural Canada.' Dr. Umar's other areas of expertise and interest includes investigating the transnational politics of racializing and gendering Islam as a religion in mainstream and academic discursive productions of a universalized and flexible "Muslim World."

In addition to her multidisciplinary background and academic training across three continents, Dr. Umar's transnational policy work experience on issues related to labour, gender, migration, and asylum laws has also informed her academic work. She has worked with organizations such as the International Organization of Migration (UN), World Vision (Geneva), and the Centre for Migration Policy and Society (COMPAS) at the University of Oxford.

Dr. Umar is fluent in both Hindi and Urdu. Her mixed-method approaches centre feminist ethnography, historical archives, oral histories, political/social economy, biopolitics, and local/transnational flows in discursive/material/visual culture analysis.

Research Interests

Dr. Umar is currently working on a book manuscript which explores the relationship (and critical distinctions) between caste and racial hierarchies, and how these entanglements-along with gender and class dynamics-inform the figure of the Muslim in Indian and global politics. Parallel to the aforementioned project, Dr Umar is also a Principal Investigator for a SSHRC IDG funded project that explores the histories, politics, and theories behind the idea of the diasporic/exiled "public intellectual." This in-depth research seeks to examine the systematic persecution of scholars-at-risk from diverse marginalized communities in the age of rising social media disinformation, far right global populism, and the changing political landscape of 'multicultural Canada.' Dr. Umar's other areas of expertise and interest includes investigating the transnational politics of racializing and gendering Islam as a religion in mainstream and academic discursive productions of a universalized and flexible "Muslim World."

In addition to her multidisciplinary background and academic training across three continents, Dr. Umar's transnational policy work experience on issues related to labour, gender, migration, and asylum laws has also informed her academic work. She has worked with organizations such as the International Organization of Migration (UN), World Vision (Geneva), and the Centre for Migration Policy and Society (COMPAS) at the University of Oxford.

Dr. Umar is fluent in both Hindi and Urdu. Her mixed-method approaches centre feminist ethnography, historical archives, oral histories, political/social economy, biopolitics, and local/transnational flows in discursive/material/visual culture analysis.

Degrees

Research Interests