Writing and Research

I'm currently working on three projects dealing with various aspects of Bangladesh.

1] I'm helping Shamsul Islam and Asiuzzaman, both at University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh, edit a book on the Bangladeshi media. There is surprisingly little work available on this topic. Much of what exists is firmly fixed in the dev com imperative and ignores the fact that much of the Bangladeshi media work within a commercial framework, even transnational framework, and needs to interpreted accordingly. Academics from ULAB, University of Dhaka, Malaysia and local practitioners are contributing.

Shameem Mahmud (UoD) is writing a chapter with me on the drive by the AL government to create a Digital Bangladesh.

2] Shameem Reza, also of Dhaka and University, and I are working on a book on trust and development in Bangladesh. Bangladesh is a culture which largely appears to be distrustful of most institutions outside of the immediate family. This has had an enormous impact on development, or so it seems to us, and has been little investigated. More on this topic later.

3] Siraj Shahjan, creator of multimedia webzine http://www.unnayannews.net and Unnayan TV, and I are working on a project on Dhaka markets for (http://www.80plus1.org) which we plan to turn into a book chapter for a collection on Islamic markets and later, a book.