Yunas Samad is a Britishsocial scientist whose research is at the interface ofsociology,politics andhistory. He is Professor of South Asian Studies and the Director of the Ethnicity and Social Policy Research Centre (ESPRC)[1] at theUniversity of Bradford. He is an expert on the study ofSouth Asia and itsdiaspora and has published several books on the topic ofPakistani nationalism,ethnicity,Islam and theWar on Terror. He regularly comments on the Muslim diaspora, politics and security issues in Pakistan for the BBC,[2] the Dawn[3] and other media outlets.
He was born in Lahore and his family migrated to the United Kingdom during his childhood. He was brought up and educated in South Merton, London. He is married and has one son. Prior to being an academic he worked in commerce and left as Managing Director of Samad Carpets, working in various offices across London, Lahore and Karachi.
He graduated with a B.A. Hons inHistory from theUniversity of North London where he was a student ofDenis Judd.[4] He was then awarded aBritish Academy scholarship to study for aDPhil inModern History atSt Antony's College,Oxford University under the supervision of the Indian historianProfessor Tapan Raychaudhuri.[5]
He remained at St Antony's College, on a Wingate Scholarship[6] as Associate Fellow of the Cecil Rhodes Chair of Race Relations and worked with the African historianProfessor Terrence Ranger. He taught at AFRAS atSussex University and then was a Research Fellow at the Centre for Research on Ethnic Relations,Warwick University working with the sociologistJohn Rex. He was appointed as a lecturer at Bradford University in 1994.[7]
Samad's main areas of interest aretransnationalism,ethnicity,nationalism, andidentity politics in South Asia and Europe. He has conducted a number of funded projects, working for various organisations, such as theForeign and Commonwealth Office,Economic Social Research Council,The European Commission and theJoseph Rowntree Foundation.
He was a member of the Expert Group on Humanities advising the European Commission on its FP 7 Research Programme[8] (2005-6) and is a Trustee of the Charles Wallace Pakistan Trust (2010).[9]
He has played a prominent role in the organisation of a number of learned societies and was Vice-chairman of the British Association for South Asian Studies (BASAS)[10] (1999–2003), Executive Committee member of the European Association for South Asian Studies (EASAS)[11](1997–2003) and was Deputy Director of the South Asia Research Centre, Geneva (2004-8).[12]
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