Shireen Azam

Shireen Azam is a DPhil researcher at the University of Oxford. Her research is centred around the uncomfortable fit between caste and secularism, and specifically on the invisibilisation of caste among Muslims. She was formerly Assistant Editor at India’s premier journal Economic & Political Weekly, where she was responsible for work in the domain of political philosophy and religious studies.

Her work has been at the intersection of academia and journalism, and in making research accessible. At the Economic & Political Weekly, she founded the digital initiative EPW Engage, which opened a new digital chapter for the 7-decade-old journal and reimagined the possibilities offered by the digital medium for visualising and communicating research. 

In 2020, Azam co-founded India Ink  – a public history project focussed on making viral explainer videos based on peer-reviewed academic history. It aims to counter false “whatsapp history” that Indian social media landscape is so rife with. India Ink collaborates with universities to help research produced in their departments to reach a wider audience.

She regularly writes in the media, with articles in the Caravan Magazine, Indian Express, Mint Lounge, Wire, FirstPost etc.