Rafique Wassan
Wassan studied anthropology at Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan. His MSc anthropology research dissertation was based on an ethnography of hereditary caste musicians in Sindh, Pakistan. He has been engaged with various participatory research study and community development projects using the social change and human-rights framework in Sindh, Pakistan. He has participated and presented papers in national and international conferences, seminars, workshops and fellowship study programs. In 2011, he participated in South Asian level fellowship research study ‘Addressing South Asian masculinities and social change’ organized by South Asian Network to address Masculinities (SANAM) in Nepal. In 2015, he participated in a study workshop ‘anti-democratic movements, governance and public policy’ held in Germany organised by DAAD funded by German Federal Foreign Office.
Started in September 2015, he is doing interdisciplinary doctoral study in the fields of anthropology, ethnomusicology and cultural studies under the Swiss Government Excellence Scholarship Program (ESKAS/FCS) in Institute of Musicology. University of Bern. His PhD research project focuses on Sufi literary and performance heritage in Sindh, Pakistan in which he aims to investigate the cultural production, politics, discourse, representation and performance of contemporary Sufi cultural practice, identity and social change in Sindh.
Title of PhD Project
Sufi heritage in Sindh, Pakistan: Discourse, Representation and Performance
Research Foci
Anthropology of South Asia | Ethnomusicology | Culture and Media theory | Sufism, Critical Heritage | Discourse Analysis | Public Sphere | Alternative Narrative | Social Movements