Bangladesh’s Uprising: Youth Mobilization and the Road Ahead

Wednesday, 18 September 2024 | Noon to 15:00 EDT | Room 305, Third Floor, Founders College, York University | In person

With Dina M. Siddiqi (New York University) and Saad Hammadi (Balsillie School of International Affairs)
Discussant: Hana Shams Ahmed (York University)

A massive student-led protest brought the 15-year authoritarian rule of Bangladesh’s former prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, to an end. The protests, triggered by quotas in government jobs, brought thousands of students to the streets who mobilized and overthrew the government. Please join us in a panel discussion with experts who have been following the situation on the ground in Bangladesh.

Dina M. Siddiqi is a cultural anthropologist by training. Her research—grounded in the study of Bangladesh—joins critical development studies, transnational feminist theory, and the anthropology of labor and Islam. She has published extensively on the global garment industry and supply chains, non-state gender justice systems, and the cultural politics of Islam, feminism, and nationalism. She is currently engaged in a project on discourses of national development and the travels of civilizational feminism. She is affiliated with the Law, Ethics, History and Religion (LEHR) and the Global Cultures concentrations.

Saad Hammadi is a Fellow at the Balsillie School of International Affairs. He has served in leadership positions of international media and human rights organizations including Amnesty International during more than two decades of his professional experience. He is an advisor to the Tech Global Institute, a global tech policy think tank, and was most recently an adviser to the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression Irene Khan. He has a Master of Arts in Global Governance from the University of Waterloo.

This event is part of the South Asia Lecture Series 2024–25: Demos, Democracy, Democratization.