Qalandar Bux Memon
Assistant Professor
DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE
Office Number: Does not apply
Extension Number:
Brief Profile:
Qalandar Bux Memon has been with the Political Science Department at Forman Christian College since 2007. He specializes in Political Philosophy, where his interests concern the philosophical concepts that arise in and through decolonial movements. More recently, he has been working on a manuscript for, People’s History of Pakistan. The book charts power and resistance in area that today come under Pakistan from pre-colonial to present times. He does this by use of oral history interviews and through his participation in solidarity work with social movements over the last two decades.
EDUCATION
PhD (expected 2024), The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
London School of Economics and Political Science – London, UK
MSc Comparative Politics: June 2006
Major Component: Comparative study of Empires
MSc. Thesis: On the Political Philosophy of Third World Anti-Colonial Resistance.
Birkbeck College, University of London– London, UK
M.A. Philosophy : May 2004
Major Component: Nietzsche, Ethics and Aesthetics
M.A. Thesis: Plato Contra Homer: On Plato’s case against the Poets.
Royal Holloway, University of London – London, UK
B.A. History, Economic History, Politics, Departmental Honors: 2001
Thesis: Goethe’s Concept of World Literature
McGill University – International Exchange 1999-2000 – Montreal, CA
Fall 1999 – Summer 2000, Coursework included: American Politics; International
Economic History; Contemporary Political Philosophy
ACADEMIC PUBLICATIONS
Authored Books
Memon, Qalandar (2024) People’s History of Pakistan, New Delhi: Left Word. (Forthcoming)
Edited Books
Memon, Q, Tahir, M. & Prashad, Eds. (2014) Dispatches from Pakistan, Minnesota: University
of Minnesota Press
Book Chapters
Memon, Qalandar, (2019) ‘Zones of Being and Non Being.’ In: Curating after the Global,
Massachusetts: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press.
Memon, Qalandar (2014) ‘“Blood on the Path of Love: On the Striking Workers of
Faisalabad.’ In: Memon, Tahir and Prashad, (eds.), Dispatches From Pakistan. Minnesota:
University of Minnesota Press
Articles
Memon, Qalandar, ‘Vanguards, Martyrs and Democrats: Notes on the Evolution of the Pakistani
Left ‘, Monthly Review, New York: Monthly Review Press (forthcoming)
CONFERENCE PAPERS
Peoples movements of Pakistan, presented at Global Women Strike, London, August 2022.
The Revolution Will not be Televised: Resistance and Governance in Pakistan away from the
metropole, Presented at University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland, August 2022
Political History of Gilgit-Baltistan, Panel on Kashmir dispute, Presented at University of
Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland, June 2022
Governance and On Representation of Violence in Pakistani Contemporary Art, presented at
Curating after the Global: Roadmaps for the Present, Arles, France, 2017
Violence and its Representation in the Art World, presented at Athens Biennial Symposia,
Athens, April 2016
Zones of Being and Non-Being in the Post-Colony, presented at Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin,
Germany, November 2015
Our Struggles, presented as part of a panel with Gayatri Chakravarty Spivak and Étienne
Balibar, Columbia University, New York, NY, November 2015
History of the National Awami Party, Presented at Pakistan Conference at University of
Toronto, Toronto, CA, June 2014
Notes towards an Outline of a History of the Pakistani Left, Presented at Panel on Art and
Politics in Pakistan, Global South-Asia Conference, New York University, New York, NY,
February 2014
The Language question in the Pakistani State’s Internal Colonization Project, Presented at
Humanities in English: Literature, Language, Linguistics, and Criticism at Forman Christian
College, Lahore, Pakistan, May 2014
Third Worldism: An Outline, Presented at Center for Public Policy and Research, Lahore,
Pakistan, May 2008
Third Worldism: Colonialism and Resistance from the Standpoint of its Victims, Presented at
Law Society, Lahore School of Management Sciences, June 2008
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS: DOCUMENTARY, ARTICLES, INTERVIEWS,
COLUMNS, OP-EDS, POETRY AND TRANSLATIONS
Documentary (as Director)
Workers of Lahore, Bretch Films, Lahore, Summer 2022
Articles, Features and Editorials Documentary
On the Working Labour Conditions of Workers of Lahore, The Friday Times, July 2022
The Labour of Animals, The News On Sunday, July 2022
On Animal Rights, The Friday Times, July 2022
Past Reminders, Possible Futures: Review of Lahore Biennale 02, Ocula, Feb 2020
Thoughts of a Man on Mother’s Day, Dawn, May 2017
On the Labour Animals Do, Dawn, May 2017
Fanon and the De-colonialization Project, The Friday Times, 14 November 2014
Discarding Masks of Servitude, The Friday Times, 24 October 2014
Free Baba Jan, The Friday Times, 10 October 2014
On Working Class Poetry of Punjab, Pakistan, World Literature Today, November 2013
Notes on the Working Class Liberation and the Pakistani Left, Viewpoint Online, 13 April 2013
The Pakistani Left is Re-grouping, New Internationalist Magazine, September 2011
A New Humanism: Notes on Third World Solidarity, Tanqeed, No. 3, April 2013
Those Struggling for a Different Pakistan, Mzine, 17 September 2010,
The War on Pakistanis, LeftTurn, India, April 2010
Bad Sufi, Dawn Pakistan, 7 February 2010
Good Sufi, The Samosa, March 2010
Dear Hilary, Which Pakistan Are You Talking About, Dawn Pakistan, November 2009
The Lawyers and the Old Granite Block, Bol Magazine, October 2009
Reviews
Revisiting the Third World Project, Review of The Darker Nations, Himal, October 2010
Art Reviews
Tale of Intimacy, Review of Abdullah Qureshi’s exhibition at Zahoor ul Akhlaq Gallery, Lahore,
The News on Sunday, April 2017
Zahid Mayo, Painter of the Subaltern, Review of Zahid Mayo’s exhibition at Sanat Gallery,
Karachi, Daily Times, April 2017
Interviews
Interview with Mike Leigh, “On Cinema and Politics”, Naked Punch, March 2020
Interview with Tariq Ali: “On Corbyn and the British Media, Palestine, Kurdistan, Pashtun
movements and how to revive Internationalism”, Naked Punch, November 2019
Interview with Noam Chomsky, “On Syria”, Naked Punch, January 2016
Interview with Arfa Syeda Zahra, An Educationalist, Herald Magazine, November 2014
Interview with Simon Critchley: “On Philosophers, Violence, Humor and Tragedy” in Naked
Punch, No. 15, 5 May, 2012
Interview with Asad Farooq: “People’s Law Tribunals in Pakistan, Naked Punch, January 2012
Interview with Tariq Ali: “Tariq Ali: Scoundrel times: Paris, Baghdad, Lahore”, Naked Punch
Review, No. 6, May 2007
Published Poetry
The Smell of Coffee, Naked Punch Review, No. 18, November 2016
What are we to Celebrate, Himal South-Asia, June 2010
Walking with Cristina on Burnt Oak High Street, CHAY magazine, 2011
On Late Night Trains and Yellow Roses, Naked Punch Review, No. 8, January 2009
Poetry Translations
Pashto to English:
Four Poems of Ghani Khan, Naked Punch, November 2013
Punjabi to English:
Arif Shah, A Poor Man’s Prayer, World Poetry Today, November 2013
Arif Shah, The Cricket Match, World Poetry Today, November, 2013
English to Urdu:
Bertolt Brecht, Solely Because of the Increasing Disorder, Bol magazine, June 2009
Nazim Hikmet, To the Workers of Asia and Africa, Bol Magazine, June 2009Education: