DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE
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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

1. Memon, Qalandar, (2019) ‘Zones of Being and Non Being.’ In: Curating after the Global,
2. Massachusetts: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press.
3. Memon, Qalandar (2014) ‘“Blood on the Path of Love: On the Striking Workers of
4. Faisalabad.’ In: Memon, Tahir and Prashad, (eds.), Dispatches From Pakistan.
5. 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

1. 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
2. Political History of Gilgit-Baltistan, Panel on Kashmir dispute, Presented at University of
   Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland, June 2022
3. Governance and On Representation of Violence in Pakistani Contemporary Art, presented at
   Curating after the Global: Roadmaps for the Present, Arles, France, 2017
   
4. Violence and its Representation in the Art World, presented at Athens Biennial Symposia,
   Athens, April 2016
   
5. 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
   
6. History of the National Awami Party, Presented at Pakistan Conference at University of
   Toronto, Toronto, CA, June 2014
   
7. 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
   
8. 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
   
9. Third Worldism: An Outline, Presented at Center for Public Policy and Research, Lahore,
   Pakistan, May 2008
   
10. 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

1. On the Working Labour Conditions of Workers of Lahore, The Friday Times, July 2022
2. The Labour of Animals, The News On Sunday, July 2022
3. On Animal Rights, The Friday Times, July 2022
4. Past Reminders, Possible Futures: Review of Lahore Biennale 02, Ocula, Feb 2020
5. Thoughts of a Man on Mother’s Day, Dawn, May 2017
6. On the Labour Animals Do, Dawn, May 2017
   
7. Fanon and the De-colonialization Project, The Friday Times, 14 November 2014
8. Discarding Masks of Servitude, The Friday Times, 24 October 2014
9. Free Baba Jan, The Friday Times, 10 October 2014
10. On Working Class Poetry of Punjab, Pakistan, World Literature Today, November 2013
    
11. Notes on the Working Class Liberation and the Pakistani Left, Viewpoint Online, 13 April 2013
    
12. The Pakistani Left is Re-grouping, New Internationalist Magazine, September 2011
    
13. A New Humanism: Notes on Third World Solidarity, Tanqeed, No. 3, April 2013
    
14. Those Struggling for a Different Pakistan, Mzine, 17 September 2010,
    
15. The War on Pakistanis, LeftTurn, India, April 2010
    
16. Bad Sufi, Dawn Pakistan, 7 February 2010
    
17. Good Sufi, The Samosa, March 2010
    
18. Dear Hilary, Which Pakistan Are You Talking About, Dawn Pakistan, November 2009
    
19. The Lawyers and the Old Granite Block, Bol Magazine, October 2009
    Reviews
    
20. Revisiting the Third World Project, Review of The Darker Nations, Himal, October 2010

Art Reviews

1. Tale of Intimacy, Review of Abdullah Qureshi’s exhibition at Zahoor ul Akhlaq Gallery, Lahore,
2. The News on Sunday, April 2017
   
3. Zahid Mayo, Painter of the Subaltern, Review of Zahid Mayo’s exhibition at Sanat Gallery,
   
4. Karachi, Daily Times, April 2017

Interviews

1. Interview with Mike Leigh, “On Cinema and Politics”, Naked Punch, March 2020
   
2. Interview with Tariq Ali: “On Corbyn and the British Media, Palestine, Kurdistan, Pashtun
   movements and how to revive Internationalism”, Naked Punch, November 2019
   
3. Interview with Noam Chomsky, “On Syria”, Naked Punch, January 2016
   
4. Interview with Arfa Syeda Zahra, An Educationalist, Herald Magazine, November 2014
   
5. Interview with Simon Critchley: “On Philosophers, Violence, Humor and Tragedy” in Naked
   Punch, No. 15, 5 May, 2012
   
6. Interview with Asad Farooq: “People’s Law Tribunals in Pakistan, Naked Punch, January 2012
   
7. Interview with Tariq Ali: “Tariq Ali: Scoundrel times: Paris, Baghdad, Lahore”, Naked Punch
   Review, No. 6, May 2007

Published Poetry

1. The Smell of Coffee, Naked Punch Review, No. 18, November 2016
   
2. What are we to Celebrate, Himal South-Asia, June 2010
   
3. Walking with Cristina on Burnt Oak High Street, CHAY magazine, 2011
   
4. 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:

1. Arif Shah, A Poor Man’s Prayer, World Poetry Today, November 2013
   
2. Arif Shah, The Cricket Match, World Poetry Today, November, 2013

English to Urdu:

1. Bertolt Brecht, Solely Because of the Increasing Disorder, Bol magazine, June 2009
2. Nazim Hikmet, To the Workers of Asia and Africa, Bol Magazine, June 2009Education: