Faculty

Dr Beena Khurana

Dean of Arts and Sciences

I consider myself a poster child for international education and espouse that a global conscience (Pico Iyer) underpins ‘the day-to-day practice of international fellowship’.

As an educator I have successfully contributed to three aspects of higher education; teaching, research and administration in various educational institutions in the US (Rutgers University, UC Berkeley, Cornell University, California Institute of Technology, California Polytechnic State University) and UK (Sussex University). I am passionate about students and focus intensely on creating rewarding and meaningful educational experiences.

Education

Ph.D.                Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, CA, 1992

M.S.                 Psychology, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, 1987

M.A.                 Psychology, Panjab University, Chandigarh, India, 1982

B.A.(Hons)        Economics and Mathematics, Panjab University, Ludhiana, India, 1980

Research

I have published in journals including Nature, Behavioral and Brain Sciences, PLoS ONE, Vision Research, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance, Experimental Brain Research, and Social Cognition. I have also co-edited a book titled Space and Time in Perception and Action (2010), Cambridge University Press.

Select Publications

Habibi, R. & Khurana, B. (2012). Spontaneous Gender Categorization in Masking and Priming Studies: Key for Distinguishing Jane from John Doe but Not Madonna from Sinatra. PLoS ONE 7(2): e32377. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0032377

Khurana, B. & Nijhawan, R. (2010). Space and time: The fabric of thought and reality. In Romi Nijhawan and Beena Khurana (Eds.) Space and Time in Perception and Action (pp. 1-6). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Parkinson, J., Dyson, B. J. & Khurana, B. (2010). Line by line: the ERP correlates of stroke order priming in letters. Experimental Brain Research, 201(3), 575-586.

Khurana, B., Habibi, R., Po, J., & Wright, D.B. (2009). Jane versus John: Facial evaluation as a function of informative eye gaze. Social Cognition, 27, 150-160.

Khurana, B., Watanabe, K., & Nijhawan, R. (2000). Are moving objects ‘corrected’ or flashed objects attentionally delayed?  Perception, 29, 675-692.

Khurana, B. (2000). Face representation without conscious processing.  Chapter for The Neural Correlates Of Consciousness: Empirical And Conceptual Issues.  Cambridge, USA: MIT Press.

Khurana, B., Smith, W., Baker, M. (2000). Not to be and then to be: Visual representation of ignored unfamiliar faces.  Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance, 26 (1), 246–263.

Khurana, B. (1998). Visual structure and the integration of form & color information.  Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance, 24 (6), 1766-1785.

Khurana, B. & Nijhawan, R. (1995). Extrapolation or attention shift?  Nature, 378, 565-566.

Khurana, B. & Kowler, E. (1987). Shared attentional control of smooth eye movements and perception.  Vision Research, 27, 1603-1618.

Dr David Taylor

Dean of Humanities

Before joining AUW, David Taylor was for many years at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, where he became Pro-Director, Teaching and Learning, from 1998-2002. He then joined Aga Khan University in Karachi as Vice-Provost for Academic Development and worked there from 2002-2008. He also served as Interim Provost from 2003-2008. Later, he was appointed Director of the Aga Khan University Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations in London from 2013-2017. He is a political scientist and historian with a longstanding interest in South Asia, which he first visited as a student in 1962.

Research interests and publications

David Taylor has conducted research on Indian political parties and elections, in particular the Indian National Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party, Islamisation in Pakistan, the nature and origins of nationalism, and mass communication, particularly the Indian press. His publications include:

(ed. with Heewon Kim), Civil Society in South Asia (special issue of Journal of Civil Society, 17 (2021)

‘Pakistan: The Military as a Political Fixture’, in Peter Burnell and Vicky Randall, Politics in the Developing World, 5th ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017), pp. 291-99.

(ed.) Islam in South Asia (4 vols) (London: Routledge, 2011)

‘Religion and Politics’, in Devin Hagerty ed., South Asia in World Politics (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2005) pp. 213-30

(with Bharati Ray), Politics and Identity in South Asia (Kolkata: K.P. Bagchi, 2001)

‘The Bharatiya Janata Party and Hindu Nationalism in India’, in Katja Fullberg-Stolberg et al. eds., Dissociation and Appropriation: Responses to Globalization in Asia and Africa (Berlin: Verlag Das Arabische Buch, 1999) pp. 151-65

Pakistan (Oxford: Clio Press, 1990, World Bibliographical Series, vol. 10)

‘The Indian National Congress: A Hundred-Year Perspective’, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1987, no. 2 pp 289-305 (reprinted with minor additions in Institutions and Ideologies, D. Arnold and P. Robb eds. (London: Curzon Press, 1993), pp. 245-64)

‘The Politics of Islam and Islamization in Pakistan’, in James P. Piscatori ed., Islam in the Political Process (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983) pp. 181-98

(ed. with M. Yapp), Political Identity in South Asia (London: Curzon Press, 1979)

‘Concepts of Duty held by Indian Nationalist Thinkers’, in W. D. O’Flaherty and J. D. M. Derrett eds, The Concept of Duty in South Asia (Delhi: Vikas, and London: SOAS, 1978) pp. 205-16

‘The Crisis of Authority in the Indian National Congress, 1936-1939’, in B. N. Pandey ed., Leadership in South Asia (Delhi: Vikas, 1977) pp. 321-40

Education

1966                       University of Cambridge

BA History

1967                       School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London

MA (Area Studies – South Asia)

1972                       School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London

PhD (dissertation title – Indian Politics and the elections of 1937)

Dr Shams Forruque Ahmed

Associate Professor of Mathematics & Computational Science

Dr Nazmul Alam

Associate Professor of Public Health

Dr Zulfikar Alom

Assistant Professor of Computer Science - On Leave

Dr. Zulfikar Alom was awarded the Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Computer Science from the University of Insubria, Italy, in October 2019. The title of his Doctoral Dissertation is “Enhancing Data Privacy and Security Related Process Through Machine Learning“. He received Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Information and Communication Engineering from the Islamic University, Bangladesh in 2014 and 2016, respectively. He received the ICT Ministry Fellowship award from the ICT Division, Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh.  Currently, he is an Assistant Professor of Computer Science and Coordinator of this program.

Courses

• Introduction to Computing and Programming (CS50)
• Database Management Systems
• Computer Communications Networks
• Software Engineering and Mobile Apps Development (iOS and Android)
• Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning
• Advanced Bioinformatics with Programming

Research

Dr. Alom’s main research interests are related to Cybersecurity, Malware detection, Big Data, Internet-of-Things (IoT), Social Networks Analysis, Machine/Deep learning, and security, privacy issues of the user-centric data management system and Bioinformatics.

Published Papers

1. Zulfikar Alom, Bikash Chandra Singh., Zeyar Aung, Mohammad Abdul Azim “Knapsack graph-based privacy checking for smart environments” International Journal of Computers & Security, 2021
2. Zulfikar Alom, Mohammad Abdul Azim, Zeyar Aung, Matloob Khushi, Josip Car, Mohammad Ali Moni “Early Stage Detection of Heart Failure using Machine Learning Techniques” International Conference on Big Data, IoT and Machine Learning (BIM), 2021
3. Dema Daoun, Fabiha Ibnat, Zulfikar Alom, Zeyar Aung, Mohammad Abdul Azim “Reinforcement Learning: A Friendly Introduction” International Conference on Deep Learning, Big Data and Blockchain (DEEP-BDB), 2021
4. Dipankar Kumar Mondal, Bikash Chandra Singh, Shivazi Biswas, Zulfikar Alom, Mohammad Abdul Azim “SeizeMaliciousURL: A Novel Learning Approach to Detect Malicious URLs” International Journal of Information Security and Applications, 2021
5. Zulfikar Alom, Barbara Carminati, Elena Ferrari, “A Deep Learning Model for Twitter Spam Detection” International Journal of Online Social Networks and Media (OSNEM), 2020
6. Zulfikar Alom, Barbara Carminati, Elena Ferrari, “Helping Users Managing Context-based Privacy Preferences” 2019 IEEE International Conference on Services Computing (SCC, 2019), pp. 100-107, Milan, Italy
7. Zulfikar Alom, Barbara Carminati, Elena Ferrari, “Adapting Users’ Privacy Preferences in Smart Environments” 2019 IEEE International Congress on Internet of Things (ICIOT, 2019), pp. 165-172, Milan, Italy
8. Zulfikar Alom, Barbara Carminati, Elena Ferrari, “Detecting Spam Accounts on Twitter” IEEE/ACM International Conference on Advances in Social Networks Analysis and Mining (ASONAM, 2018), 1191-1198, Barcelona, Spa
9. Zulfikar Alom, Tapan Kumar Godder, Mohammad Nayeem Morshed, “Performance Analysis of Routing Protocols in Mobile Ad-hoc Network (MANET)” International Conference on Advanced Information and Communication Technology (ICAICT, 2016), Chittagong, Bangladesh
10. Zulfikar Alom, Tapan Kumar Godder, Mohammad Nayeem Morshed, Asmaa Maali, “Enhanced Spectrum Sensing based on Energy Detection in Cognitive Radio Network using Adaptive Threshold” IEEE International Conference on Networking, Systems and Security (NSysS, 2017), 138-143, Dhaka, Bangladesh
11. Zulfikar Alom, Tapan Kumar Godder, Mohammad Nayeem Morshed, “A Survey of Spectrum Sensing Techniques in Cognitive Radio Network” 2015 IEEE International Conference on Advances in Electrical Engineering (ICAEE, 2015), 161-164, Dhaka, Bangladesh

Papers Under Submission

1. Dema Daoun, Zulfikar Alom, Zeyar Aung, Mohammad Abdul Azim “Reinforcement Learning in Blockchain-enabled IoT Networks Challenges”, International Journal of AI Communications.
2. Nilufa Yeasmin, Nosin Ibna Mahbub, Bikash Chandra Singh, Zulfikar Alom, Mohammad Abdul Azim, “Analysis and Prediction of User Sentiment on COVID-19 Pandemic using Tweets”, International Journal of Social Network Analysis and Mining.
3. Bikash Chandra Singh, Zulfikar Alom, Mohammad Muntasir Rahman, Mrinal Kanti Baowal, Zeyar Aung, Mohammad Ali Moni, Mohammad Abdul Azim, “COVID-19 Pandemic Outbreak in the Subcontinent: A data-driven analysis”, International Journal of Personalized Medicine.
4. Fabiha Ibnat, Jigmey Gyalmo, Zulfikar Alom, Mohammad Abdul Azim, “Understanding World Happiness using Machine Learning Techniques” International Conference on Electronics, Communications and Information Technology, (ICECIT) 2021
5. Khondoker Mirazul, Zulfikar Alom, Mohammad Abdul Azim, Abdul Awal, “OLGBM: Optuna Optimized Light Gradient Boosting Machine for Intrusion Detection” International Conference on Electronics, Communications and Information Technology, (ICECIT) 2021

Education

Ph.D. Computer Science, University of Insubria, Italy

M.Sc. Information and Communication Engineering, Islamic University, Bangladesh

B.Sc. Information and Communication Engineering, Islamic University, Bangladesh

Dr Tuhin Biswas

Assistant Professor of Public Health

Tuhin working as a Assistant Professor of Public Health at Asian University for Women. Before that, he worked as a Post-Doctoral Research fellow (Group: Health and Society) at the Institute for Social Science Research (ISSR), the University of Queensland in Australia. A public health by training, Tuhin’s research focuses on understanding the social and economic consequences of health and demographic change, particularly in developed and developing countries. He has been collaborating with multidisciplinary researchers and institutions in countries including Australia, USA, UK, Vietnam, Indonesia, India, Nepal, and Bangladesh. His research interest in obesity and co-morbidities development and early prevention, diabetes, hypertension, adolescent health, health system, health policy, systematic review and meta-analysis. He started his research career as a research fellow in one of the centre of excellence “Centre for Control of Chronic Diseases” at icddr,b which was established with funding support from National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI), USA. His PhD research focused on double burden of malnutrition among the women in South and Southeast Asia and its geographical variation, health inequality and health achievement.

Project involvements

1. Exposure to Trihalomethanes in pregnancy and birth outcomes in Queensland: integrated data analysis and case studies for better policy and health outcomes.
2. Mobile phone-based technology to improve health, population and nutrition services in Rural Bangladesh.
3. Community based lifestyle intervention for diabetes management in Nepal: A clustered randomized trial.
4. Obesity prevalence and patterns of diet and physical activity among children and adolescents in urban areas in Bangladesh.
5. Prevalence Chronic Non-Communicable Diseases among the Elders in Old-age Homes in Bangladesh.
6. Mobile Phone Intervention for Increasing Adherence to Treatment for Type 2 Diabetes in an Urban Area of Bangladesh: a Randomized Controlled Trial.
7. Social and economic impact of diabetics in Bangladesh: a case–control study.
8. Early life exposure to famine and its influence on later life metabolic syndrome: protocol for a community-based study on 1974 famine exposed population in rural Bangladesh.
9. Prevalence of maternal depression of autistic children in Dhaka city and feasibility of implementing household-based training for parents.
10. Factors determining development of effective policy strategy to improve rural retention of medical doctors in Bangladesh.
11. Assessing emerging challenges and solutions on Faculty Development in the Health sector in Bangladesh.
12. Situation analyses of health, nutrition, and water, hygiene and sanitation among Undocumented Myanmar Nationals (UMN) and people in host communities in Cox’s Bazar district in Bangladesh.
13. Determining the challenges and opportunities for strengthening NCD corners in Bangladesh: A situation analyses.

Journal Articles

1. Mannan A, Hasan MM, Akter F, Rana MM, Chowdhury NA, Rawal LB, Biswas T. Factors associated with low adherence to medication among patients with type 2 diabetes at different healthcare facilities in southern Bangladesh. Global Health Action. 2021 Jan 1;14(1):1872895.
2. Biswas T, Scott JG, Munir K, Thomas HJ, Huda MM, Hasan MM, de Vries TD, Baxter J, Mamun AA. Global variation in the prevalence of bullying victimisation amongst adolescents: Role of peer and parental supports. EClinicalMedicine. 2020 Mar 1;20:100276.
3. Biswas T, Scott JG, Munir K, Renzaho AM, Rawal LB, Baxter J, Mamun AA. Global variation in the prevalence of suicidal ideation, anxiety and their correlates among adolescents: A population based study of 82 countries. EClinicalMedicine. 2020 Jul 1;24:100395.
4. Islam MS, Biswas T. Prevalence and correlates of the composite index of anthropometric failure among children under 5 years old in Bangladesh. Maternal & child nutrition. 2020 Apr;16(2):e12930.
5. Islam SM, Uddin R, Zaman SB, Biswas T, Tansi T, Chegini Z, Moni MA, Niessen L, Naheed A. Healthcare seeking behavior and glycemic control in patients with type 2 diabetes attending a tertiary hospital. International Journal of Diabetes in Developing Countries. 2020 Oct 8:1-8.
6. Begum T, Saif‐Ur‐Rahman KM, Yaqoot F, Stekelenburg J, Anuradha S, Biswas T, Doi SA, Mamun AA. Global incidence of caesarean deliveries on maternal request: a systematic review and meta‐regression. BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics & Gynaecology. 2020 Sep 1.
7. Biswas T, Magalhaes RS, Townsend N, Das SK, Mamun A. Double burden of underweight and overweight among women in South and Southeast Asia: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Advances in Nutrition. 2020 Jan 1;11(1):128-43.
8. Hasan MM, Magalhaes RJ, Ahmed S, Ahmed S, Biswas T, Fatima Y, Islam MS, Hossain MS, Mamun AA. Meeting the Global Target in Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health Care Services in Low-and Middle-Income Countries. Global Health: Science and Practice. 2020 Dec 23;8(4):654-65
9. Ahmed S, Pervin S, Biswas T, Chowdhury MA, Hasnat MA, Shuvra MM. Undiagnosed isolated systolic and diastolic hypertension subtypes and their correlates in Bangladesh: a nationwide Survey. Osong public health and research perspectives. 2019 Feb;10(1):12.
10. Biswas T, Townsend N, Magalhaes RS, Hasan M, Mamun A. Patterns and determinants of the double burden of malnutrition at the household level in South and Southeast Asia. European Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 2020 Sep 2:1-7.
11. Rawal LB, Kharel C, Yadav UN, Kanda K, Biswas T, Vandelanotte C, Baral S, Abdullah AS. Community health workers for non-communicable disease prevention and control in Nepal: a qualitative study. BMJ open. 2020 Dec 1;10(12):e040350.
12. Biswas T, Townsend N, Magalhaes RS, Islam MS, Hasan MM, Mamun A. Current progress and future directions in the double burden of malnutrition among women in South and Southeast Asian countries. Current developments in nutrition. 2019 Jul;3(7):nzz026.
13. Das S, Fahim SM, Islam MS, Biswas T, Mahfuz M, Ahmed T. Prevalence and sociodemographic determinants of household-level double burden of malnutrition in Bangladesh. Public health nutrition. 2019 Jun;22(8):1425-32.
14. Rawal LB, Kanda K, Biswas T, Tanim MI, Poudel P, Renzaho AM, Abdullah AS, Islam SM, Ahmed SM. Non-communicable disease (NCD) corners in public sector health facilities in Bangladesh: a qualitative study assessing challenges and opportunities for improving NCD services at the primary healthcare level. BMJ open. 2019 Oct 1;9(10):e029562.
15. Biswas T, Townsend N, Islam MS, Islam MR, Gupta RD, Das SK, Al Mamun A. Association between socioeconomic status and prevalence of non-communicable diseases risk factors and comorbidities in Bangladesh: findings from a nationwide cross-sectional survey. BMJ open. 2019 Mar 1;9(3):e025538.
16. Biswas T, Haider MM, Gupta RD, Uddin J. Assessing the readiness of health facilities for diabetes and cardiovascular services in Bangladesh: a cross-sectional survey. BMJ open. 2018 Oct 1;8(10):e0228
17. 1Das Gupta R, Gupta S, Das A, Biswas T, Haider MR, Sarker M. Ethnic predisposition of diabetes mellitus in the patients with previous history of gestational diabetes mellitus: a review. Expert review of endocrinology & metabolism. 2018 May 4;13(3):149-58.
18. GBD 2017 Causes of Death Collaborators (Tuhin Included). Global, regional, and national age-sex-specific mortality for 282 causes of death in 195 countries and territories, 1980–2017: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017. Lancet 2018; 392: 1736– 88.
19. GBD 2017 Population and Fertility Collaborators (Tuhin included). Population and fertility by age and sex for 195 countries and territories, 1950–2017: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017. Lancet 2018; 392: 1995–2051.
20. GBD 2017 Mortality Collaborators (Tuhin included). Global, regional, and national age- sex-specific mortality and life expectancy, 1950–2017: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017. Lancet 2018; 392: 1684–735.
21. GBD 2017 Risk Factor Collaborators (Tuhin included). Global, regional, and national comparative risk assessment of 84 behavioural, environmental and occupational, and metabolic risks or clusters of risks for 195 countries and territories, 1990–2017: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017. Lancet 2018; 392: 1923–94.
22. GBD 2017 SDG Collaborators (Tuhin included). Measuring progress from 1990 to 2017 and projecting attainment to 2030 of the health-related Sustainable Development Goals for 195 countries and territories: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017. Lancet 2018; 392: 2091–138.
23. Khandker NN, Biswas T, Khan AN, Hasib E, Rawal LB. Socio-demographic characteristics and tobacco use among the adults in urban slums of Dhaka, Bangladesh. Tobacco induced diseases. 2017 Dec;15(1):1-8.
24. Islam MS, Hussain MA, Islam S, Mahumud RA, Biswas T, Islam SM. Age at menarche and its socioeconomic determinants among female students in an urban area in Bangladesh. Sexual & Reproductive Healthcare. 2017 Jun 1;12:88-92.
25. Biswas T, Garnett SP, Pervin S, Rawal LB. The prevalence of underweight, overweight and obesity in Bangladeshi adults: Data from a national survey. PloS one. 2017 May 16;12(5):e0177395.
26. Biswas T, Uddin MJ, Mamun AA, Pervin S, P Garnett S. Increasing prevalence of overweight and obesity in Bangladeshi women of reproductive age: Findings from 2004 to 2014. PloS one. 2017 Jul 28;12(7):e0181080.
27. Rawal LB, Biswas T, Khandker NN, Saha SR, Bidat Chowdhury MM, Khan AN, Chowdhury EH, Renzaho A. Non-communicable disease (NCD) risk factors and diabetes among adults living in slum areas of Dhaka, Bangladesh. PloS one. 2017 Oct 3;12(10):e0184967.
28. Biswas T, Islam A, Islam MS, Pervin S, Rawal LB. Overweight and obesity among children and adolescents in Bangladesh: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Public Health. 2017 Jan 1;142:94-101.
29. Biswas T, Pervin S, Tanim MI, Niessen L, Islam A. Bangladesh policy on prevention and control of non-communicable diseases: a policy analysis. BMC Public Health. 2017 Dec;17(1):1-1.
30. Islam SM, Biswas T, Bhuiyan FA, Mustafa K, Islam A. Patients’ perspective of disease and medication adherence for type 2 diabetes in an urban area in Bangladesh: a qualitative study. BMC research notes. 2017 Dec;10(1):1-8.
31. Uddin J, Biswas T, Adhikary G, Ali W, Alam N, Palit R, Uddin N, Uddin A, Khatun F, Bhuiya A. Impact of mobile phone-based technology to improve health, population and nutrition services in Rural Bangladesh: a study protocol. BMC medical informatics and decision making. 2017 Dec;17(1):1-9.
32. Islam SM, Niessen LW, Seissler J, Ferrari U, Biswas T, Islam A, Lechner A. Diabetes knowledge and glycemic control among patients with type 2 diabetes in Bangladesh. SpringerPlus. 2015 Dec;4(1):1-7.
33. Islam SM, Biswas T, Bhuiyan FA, Islam MS, Rahman MM, Nessa H. Injecting drug users and their health seeking behavior: a cross-sectional study in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Journal of addiction. 2015;2015.
34. Shariful Islam SM, Biswas T, Bhuiyan FA, Islam M, Rahman MM, Nessa H. Injecting drug users and their health seeking behavior: A cross-sectional study in dhaka, Bangladesh. Journal of Addiction. 2015 Jan 1;2015.

Dr Mohiuddin Ahsanul Kabir Chowdhury

Assistant Professor of Public Health

Dr. Chowdhury has recently joined as an Assistant Professor of Public Health. He will be conducting research activities besides teaching students. He received his PhD in Epidemiology from the University of South Carolina. Earlier, he has a prior experience of teaching as an Assistant Professor at BRAC University and also worked as an Assistant Scientist at icddr,b, a renowned research organization.

Dr. Chowdhury will be teaching Research Methods in Public Health. Social and Behavioral Sciences in Public Health, and Maternal and Child Health during this academic year.

Research interests
Maternal and Child Health, Implementation Research, Health Systems Research, Autism and disability, Migration and health, Gender based violence, and health disparities

Journal Articles

1. Anemia prevalence in women of reproductive age in low-and-middle-income countries between 2000 and 2018. Kinyoki D, Osgood-Zimmerman AE, Bhattacharjee NV, Local Burden of Disease Anaemia Collaborators, Kassebaum NJ, Hay SI. Nature Medicine. 2021
2. Global, regional, and national mortality among young people aged 10–24 years, 1950–2019: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019. GBD 2019 Adolescent Mortality Collaborators. The Lancet. 2021
3. Fatal police violence by race and state in the USA, 1980–2019: a network meta-regression. GBD 2019 Police Violence US Subnational Collaborators. The Lancet. 2021
4. Mapping inequalities in exclusive breastfeeding in low- and middle-income countries, 2000–2018.Bhattacharjee VN, Schaeffer LE, Hay SI, Local Burden of Disease Exclusive Breastfeeding Collaborators. Nature Human behaviour. 2021
5. Mapping subnational HIV mortality in six Latin American countries with incomplete vital registration systems. Local Burden of Diseases HIV Collaborators. BMC Medicine. 2021
6. Subnational mapping of HIV incidence and mortality among individuals aged 15–49 years in sub-Saharan Africa, 2000–18: a modelling study. Local Burden of Diseases HIV Collaborators. The Lancet HIV. 2021
7. Are childbirth location and mode of delivery associated with favorable early breastfeeding practices in hard-to-reach areas of Bangladesh? Ali NB, Karim F, Billah SM, Hoque DME, Khan ANS, Hasan MM, Simi SM, Arifeen SE, Chowdhury MAK. PLoS ONE. 2020
8. The Interaction of Adverse Childhood Experiences and Resiliency on the Outcome of Depression Among Children and Youth, 8-17 years old. Elmore A, Crouch E, Chowdhury MAK. Child abuse and neglect. 2020
9. Morbidity and mortality from road injuries: results from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017. James SL, GBD collaborators. Injury prevention. 2020
10. The burden of unintentional drowning: global, regional and national estimates of mortality from the Global Burden of Disease 2017 Study. Franklin RC, GBD collaborators. Injury prevention. 2020
11. Global injury morbidity and mortality from 1990 to 2017: results from Global Burden of Disease Study 2017. James SL, GBD collaborators . Injury prevention. 2020
12. Estimating global injuries morbidity and mortality: methods and data used in Global Burden of Disease 2017 study. James SL, GBD collaborators . Injury prevention. 2020
13. Prevalence and factors associated with caesarean section in four Hard-to-Reach areas of Bangladesh: Findings from a cross-sectional survey. Karim F, Ali NB, Khan ANS, Hassan A, Hasan MM, Hoque DME, Billah SM, Arifeen SE, Chowdhury MAK. PLoS ONE. 2020
14. RELISH-DB a large expert-curated database for benchmarking biomedical literature search Brown P, RELISH Consortium, Zhou Y . Scientific data. 2019
15. Large expert-curated database for benchmarking document similarity detection in biomedical literature search. Brown P, RELISH Consortium, Zhou Y. Database. 2019
16. Prevalence and risk factors of postpartum depression among women living in urban slums of Dhaka, Bangladesh. Azad R, Fahmi R, Shtestha S, Joshi H, Hasan M, Khan ANS, Chowdhury MAK, Arifeen SE, Billah SM. PLoS ONE. 2019
17. Prevalence and determinants of initiation of breastfeeding within one hour of birth: an analysis of the Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey, 2014. Karim F, Khan ANS, Tasnim F, Chowdhury MAK, Billah SM, Karim T, Arifeen SE, Garnett SP. PLoS ONE. 2019
18. Quality of care during childbirth at public health facilities in Bangladesh: a cross-sectional study using WHO/UNICEF ‘Every Mother Every Newborn (EMEN)’standards. Billah SM, Chowdhury MAK, Khan ANS, Karim F, Hassan A, Zaka N, Arifeen SE, Manu A. BMJ Open Quality. 2019
19. Competence of healthcare professionals in diagnosing and managing obstetric complications and conducting neonatal care: a clinical vignette-based assessment in district and subdistrict hospitals in northern Bangladesh. Khan ANS, Karim F, Chowdhury MAK, Zaka N, Manu A, Arifeen SE, Billah SM. BMJ Open. 2019
20. Ambiguous Genitalia – A social dilemma in Bangladesh: A Case Report. Chowdhury MAK, Anwar MR, Saha A. International Journal of Surgery Case Reports. 2018
21. Knowledge and Acceptance of HPV Vaccine for Cervical Cancer Prevention among Corporate Women in Bangladesh: A Mixed Method Study. Bhuiyan A, Sultana F, Islam JY, Chowdhury MAK, Nahar Q. BioResearch Open Access. 2018
22. A community-based cluster randomized controlled trial (cRCT) to evaluate the impact and operational assessment of “Safe Motherhood and Newborn Health Promotion Package”: Study Protocol. Hoque DME, Chowdhury MAK, Rahman AE, Billah SM, Bari S, Tahsina T, Islam T, Mori R, Arifeen SE. BMC Public Health. 2018
23. Domestic violence against women in urban slums of Bangladesh: A cross sectional survey. Chowdhury MAK, Rahman AE, Morium S, Hasan MM, Bhuiyan A, Arifeen SE. Journal of interpersonal violence. 2018
24. Child marriage: historical reality around the globe and in Bangladesh. Chowdhury MAK, Morium S. Archives of Psychology. 2018
25. Initiation of breastfeeding within one hour of birth and its determinants among normal vaginal deliveries at primary and secondary health facilities in Bangladesh: A case-observation study. Karim F, Billah SM, Chowdhury MAK, Zaka N, Manu A, Arifeen SE, Khan ANS. PLoS ONE. 2018

Working Papers / Reports

1. Report on demographic profiling and needs assessment of maternal and child health(MCH) care for the Rohingya Refugee population in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. Chowdhury MAK, Billah SM, Karim F, Khan ANS, Islam S, Arifeen SE. icddr,b. 2018

Education

Ph.D. Epidemiology, University of South Carolina, USA

MPH, BRAC University, Bangladesh

BMBBS, Chittagong Medical College, University of Chittagong, Bangladesh

Dr Simon Clarke

Director of the Core Program and Associate Professor of Philosophy

Simon Clarke is the Director of the Core General Education Program and teaches courses in PPE. He studied at the University of Auckland, New Zealand and received his doctorate from Oxford University. He taught at AUW in 2012-2014 before rejoining in 2022. He has also taught at the University of Canterbury (NZ) and the American University of Armenia. He is the author of Foundations of Freedom: Welfare-Based Arguments Against Paternalism (Routledge, 2012) as well as articles published in the Journal of Political Philosophy, Political Studies, Ethical Perspectives, Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy, and Journal of Applied Philosophy.

Research interests

Political philosophy, moral philosophy, bioethics, and the history of political thought.

Book Chapters, etc.

• ‘Populism in Armenia: A Conceptual Framework and its Application’, in Reinhard Heinisch (editor) Diverse Voices on Populism- New Insights from the European “Periphery” (Nomos Publishing, 2022, forthcoming).

Journal Articles

• Compulsory Vaccination and Nozickian Rights’, Journal of Applied Philosophy, forthcoming 2022.
• ‘Freedom and Happiness: Does freedom make people happy?’ Journal of Political Science: Bulletin of Yerevan University, volume 1, 2022.

Working Papers / Reports

• ‘The Case Against Mandatory Vaccination’, Dilemmas, Center for Population-Level Bioethics, Rutgers University, 2021.
• ‘Voluntary Euthanasia: For and Against’ Scoop, September 2020.
• ‘Was the Revolution Justified?’ EVN Report, November 2018.

Dr Suparna Das

Assistant Professor of Economics

Dr Jyotish Chandra Debnath

Assistant Professor of  Physics

Dr Mukesh Kumar Gupta

Assistant Professor of Environmental Sciences

Dr Moinul Islam

Associate Professor of Economics; Head of Arts and Social Sciences

Research

Professor Islam studies development economics, international economics, environmental economics, and monetary economics. His current research projects include:

“Consumers’ Attitude towards Eco-products/ organic Foods: Evidence from Bangladesh Cities” (With Mohammad N. Nobi)

“Households’ Willingness to pay to Avoid Water Logging in Bakalia of Chittagong City Corporation” (With Meherun Ahmed and Mohammad Nur Nobi)

“Influence of Parent’s Profession and Education on Student Performances at Tertiary Level: A Cross Country Study” (With Meherun Ahmed and Mohammad Nur Nobi)

Publications

Articles:

“Long Term Impact of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) on Economic Growth of Bangladesh” Allato Academic Studies, International Ataturk Alatoo University Bishkek, KYRGYZSTAN (2016). Co-authored with Afroza Alam and Mohammed N. Nobi,

“A Demand for Money Function with Output Uncertainty, Monetary Volatility, and Financial Innovations: Evidence from Japan”: Research Journal for Management Sciences, Vol.4(5), pp.15-20 May (2015)

“Economic Growth, Economic Freedom, and Corruption: Evidence from Panel Data”: International Research Journal for Social Sciences, Vol.4(5), pp.37-42 May (2015)

Role of Rural Women in Environment Conservation: A Case Study of a Bangladesh Village (Co-authored With T.A. Chowdhury) submitted for publication in the forthcoming issue of International Research Journal for Social Sciences.

Working Papers/Reports:

“Estimating the Environmental Cost of Shrimp Farming in Coastal Areas of Chittagong and Cox’s Bazaar in Bangladesh” (Coauthored with Mohammad N, Nobi)

“Does Facebook Reduce Unemployment? A Holistic Research on How Beauty Index Affects a Facebooker’s Chance of Getting Jobs” (Co-authored with Tram Pham)

Export Performance – Disadvantage of the landlocked countries (Co-authored with Kritika Kumari)

“Socioeconomic Disparities between Eastern and Western Part of Bangladesh: An Empirical Analysis” (with Jeenat Binta Jabbar)

“Impact of Remittance Inflows on Economic Growth in South Asia: Evidence from Panel data” (with Jyothi Nair)

Migrants’ Remittance Income and its Impact on Households’ Savings in Nepal

Education

Ph.D. Economics, Southern Illinois University, USA

M.S. Economics, Illinois State University, USA

M.S.S. Economics, University of Chittagong, Bangladesh

B.S.S. Economics, University of Chittagong, Bangladesh

Dr Ahmedul Kabir

Assistant Professor of Chemistry & Biochemistry

Dr Mohammad Manir Hossain Mollah

Assistant Professor of Biostatistics/Bioinformatics

Dr AKM Moniruzzaman Mollah

Takeda Chair of Bioinformatics and Public Health

Dr Lutfun Nahar

Assistant Professor of Computer Science

Dr. Nahar joined AUW in August 2022. She obtained her bachelor majoring in Computer Science from Asian University for Women in 2013. She received her MSc and PhD in Visual Informatics from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM). Before joining AUW she was a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Centre for Cyber Security in UKM. She actively publishes in various international journals and conferences in the field of educational technology, software engineering, artificial intelligence, deep learning and geospatial analysis.

Teaching

Introduction to Computing & Programming (CS50)

Research interests

Educational technology, Software Development & Usability engineering, Android programming, Artificial intelligence, Geospatial analytics, Deep learning, etc.

Journal Articles

Journal Articles

1. Lutfun Nahar, Riza Sulaiman, Azizah Jaafar (2022) “An Interactive Math Braille Learning Application to Assist Blind Students in Bangladesh”, Assistive Technology 34(02): 157–169, [ISI Impact Factor of 2020 is 2.431, a Q2 journal].
2. Lutfun Nahar, Azizah Jaafar, Riza Sulaiman (2021) “Bangla Braille Learning Application (BBLA)” for Visually Impaired Students (VIS) in Bangladesh”, Interactive Learning Environments 29(5): 821–834 [ISI Impact Factor of 2020 is 3.928, a Q1 journal].
3. Lutfun Nahar, Azizah Jaafar, Riza Sulaiman (2019) “Usability Evaluation of a Mobile Phone Based Braille Application “mBRAILLE””, Malaysian Journal of Computer Science, Special Issue 2019, p. 108-117, [ISI Impact Factor of 2018 is 0.65, a Q4 journal].
4. Lutfun Nahar, Azizah Jaafar, Eistiak Ahamed, A. B. M. A. Kaish (2015) “Design of a Braille Learning Application for Visually Impaired Students in Bangladesh”, Assistive Technology, 27(3): 172-182, [ISI Impact Factor of 2014 is 1.679, a Q1 journal].
5. Lutfun Nahar, Riza Sulaiman, Azizah Jaafar, “Users’ Perception on Usability Aspects of a Braille Learning Mobile Application ‘mBRAILLE’, In book: Advances in Visual Informatics, 6th International Visual Informatics Conference, IVIC 2019, Bangi, Malaysia, November 19–21, 2019.
6. Lutfun Nahar, Azizah Jaafar, Riza Sulaiman, “Mathematics Education and Accessible Technologies for visually impaired students in Bangladesh”, 5th International Visual Informatics Conference, Putrajaya, 28-30 November 2017.
7. Lutfun Nahar, Azizah Jaafar, ABMA Kaish, “Mathematics Education for Blind: Current Scenario from the Blind Schools in Bangladesh”, 2nd International Conference on Special Education, Kuching, 31 July-02 August 2017.
8. Lutfun Nahar, Azizah Jaafar, “Bangla Talking Calculator for visually impaired students in Bangladesh”, 4th International Visual Informatics Conference, Putrajaya, 17-19 November 2015.
9. Lutfun Nahar, Azizah Jaafar, “Touch based braille technologies for visually impaired people in developing countries”, Visual Informatics International Seminar, Kuala Lumpur, 26-27 November 2014.
10. Lutfun Nahar, Azizah Jaafar, Faheem Hussain, “DAISY: An Assistive Technology for Visually Impaired People in Bangladesh”, 2nd International Conference on Computer Engineering & Mathematical Sciences 2013 (ICCEMS 2013), Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 5-6 December 2013.
11. Lutfun Nahar, Azizah Jaafar, Faheem Hussain, “School Based Information Center for the Rural People in Bangladesh”, 2013 IEEE Student Conference on Research & Development, Putrajaya, 16-17 December 2013.

Dr Sharin Shajahan Naomi

Assistant Professor of Gender Studies

Dr. Sharin Shajahan Naomi has completed PhD from Murdoch University, Australia. The title of her thesis is “Tibetan Buddhism and Feminism in an In-between Space: A Creative-Critical  Autoethnography in a Non-Western Woman’s Voice”. She was awarded the Australian Leadership Award 2010 for pursuing Masters of Arts at the Centre for Human Rights Education, Curtin University, Australia. She has completed Bachelors in Law from the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh.  In the past, she has worked for the Research and Evaluation Division of BRAC, Empowerment of Law through Common People, ManusherJonno, Ain o Salish Kendra and the Centre for Human Rights Education, Curtin University, Australia

Research

Naomi has worked on research projects on topics including right to information, access to justice, human rights education, human rights lawyering, violence against women, rape, women empowerment, “ficto criticism”, religion and human rights, feminism, Buddhism and autoethngraphy.

Publications

Book Chapters

Book Chapter: Community Empowerment and Local Governance (Co author) in Driving    Development: A Story of BRAC’s Evolution and Effectiveness. The University Press Limited, Dhaka, Bangladesh, 2016

Book Chapter: Human Rights and Legal Aid Services (Co author) in Driving Development: A Story of BRAC’s Evolution and Effectiveness. The University Press Limited, Dhaka, Bangladesh, 2016

Journal Articles

Indigenous dispossession continues apace in Bangladesh, Australian E Journal of  Social and Political Debate. 21 October, 2010.

Video Productions

Video ( team member, script writing and role play): One love religion: Healing anger against Burqa in Australia,  Perth,  2010. Australia.

Working Papers / Reports

Who is Human Rights Summer School? Paper published in ‘Human Rights Summer School Manual 2010’, December 20110, Empowerment of Law Through Common People : Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Revisiting Group Dynamic and Legal Rights, Working Paper, Issue 15, Nov 2010, Research and Evaluation Division, BRAC, Bangladesh.

State of Justice in Chittagong Hill Tracts: Exploring the Formal and Informal Justice Institutions of Indigenous Communities, Monograph Series No 44, January – 2011, Research and Evaluation Division, BRAC, Bangladesh .

Research Reports

Exploring Livelihoods of Plain Land Indigenous People in Bangladesh: Baseline Findings of   Integrated Development Programme for indigenous People, Research report, Aug, 2014, BRAC, Bangladesh.

The Legal Challenges on the way to Judicial Remedy in Rape Cases: The Role of Human Rights and Legal Services Programme of BRAC, BRAC Research Report 2009.

Human Rights Lawyering: Expanding the Role of BRAC Panel Lawyers in Legal Empowerment, BRAC Research Report 2010.

Modifying Human Rights and Legal Education Course for Human Rights and Legal Services, BRAC,  BRAC Report, December, 2011

Legal empowerment through human rights and legal education course: Observations and recommendations from field visits, BRAC Research Report, 2011.

Conference Publications

When the interference and guidance in research comes from Lord Buddha, Curtin Humanities Post Graduate Conference 2010, Australia.

Dialogue between Tibetan Buddhism and feminism in Buddhist women’s lives, Buddhism and Australia, Conference paper,  International conference on Buddhism  and Australia 2015.

Education

Ph.D. School of Education and Humanities, Murdoch University, Australia

Dr Mikio Oishi

Associate Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies

Dr Raghunandan Reddy

Assistant Professor of Sociology

Dr. Reddy joined AUW in August 2021. Teaching core courses in social sciences to undergraduate students. PhD Sociology from Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, India. Primary research areas are gender and labor process theory. Doctoral research focused on examining the way work practices and managerial discourses reproduce and sustain a gendered organization using Institutional Ethnography research framework in an Information Technology services organization in India. Published three research papers in ABDC B ranked international journal. Two decades of prior experience in managing organizational change and process management initiatives in Information Technology services organizations in India, USA, South Africa, South Korea and UK.

Research

Gendering of Organizations

Gendered Labor Process

Labor Process Theory

Bullying and Sexual Harassment at Workplace

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

Publications

1. Reddy, R., Sharma, A. and Jha, M. (2019), “Hegemonic masculinity or masculine domination: Toward a comprehensive social theory of gender”, International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, Vol. 39 No. 3/4, pp. 296-310. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSSP-08-2018-0133
2. Reddy, R. (2019), “Liberal gender equality and social difference: an institutional ethnography”, International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, Vol. 39 No. 9/10, pp. 680-694. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSSP-06-2019-0114
3. Reddy, R., Sharma, A. and Jha, M. (2019), “Gendered labour process: Exploration in an information technology services organization in India”, International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, Vol. 39 No. 9/10, pp. 831-850. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSSP-07-2019-0144
4. Reddy, R. (2022). Crossing the Gender Chasm for Productive Field Engagement. The Qualitative Report, 27(12), 2744-2760. https://doi.org/10.46743/2160-3715/2022.5783

Dr Selim Reza

Assistant Professor and Coordinator of Development Studies; Program Director, In-Service Master of Education (M.Ed.); Director, AUW Summer School

Dr. Selim Reza is Assistant Professor and Coordinator of Development Studies; Program Director, In-Service Master of Education (M.Ed.)

He teaches and researches theories and practices of development, inequalities, poverty, human trafficking, migration, modern slavery, forced labour, and precarious work. He has a PhD from Flinders University, Australia where he received rigorous first-hand training on learning and teaching practices in higher education and thus developed effective teaching skills through completing a one-year academic internship programme as a doctoral student with teaching responsibilities. His professional experience spans research, teaching and academic programme coordination. Before PhD, he was a researcher at the Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit (RMMRU) of the University of Dhaka. He previously taught at Flinders University, Australia and BRAC University, Bangladesh. He coordinated three Masters programmes at BRAC University, including Master of Development Studies (MDS), in his academic leadership role as Head of Academic Programmes at BRAC Institute of Governance and Development (BIGD). In 2013, he was awarded a Commonwealth Professional Fellowship at the University of Sussex, UK to develop his capacity for leadership in Southern-led research for development. He is an affiliated faculty at the Global Labour Research Centre (GLRC) of York University, Canada.

Teaching

SOCA2600 Introduction to Development Studies

DS3650 Theories and Practices of Development

PPE3070 Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery

Research Interests

Dr. Reza’s broad research area is social organisation of work for Asian migrant workers. His key research interests span labour migration, recruitment practices, precarious work and individualised employment relationship issues that are theoretically founded in the political economy of migrant labour and contingent employment practices. He is the author of the book “The Construction Precariat” published by Taylor & Francis (Routledge, UK) in 2021. He maintains an active research affiliation with the Global Labour Research Centre (GLRC) of York University, Canada and the Centre for Employment Relations, Innovation and Change (CERIC) of the University of Leeds, UK. He started his career as a Field Researcher and subsequently became Research Associate and then Research and Communications Officer at the Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit (RMMRU) of the University of Dhaka. In these positions at RMMRU, he worked for many research projects including the UK Aid-funded multidisciplinary, multi-country Migrating out of Poverty Research Programme Consortium based in the University of Sussex, UK. This Consortium involved him in various research projects on poverty reducing and developmental impacts of migration in Africa and Asia. He conducted focus group discussions, household surveys and in-depth interviews, led a team of researchers, supervised research assistants in data analysis, and drafted many research reports, policy briefs, journal articles and conference and other presentations. He also wrote a policy background paper on the migration sector in Bangladesh as a consultant for the World Bank.

Project involvements:
Dr. Reza is involved in many student research projects at Asian University for Women. Under his supervision, seven students have successfully completed their senior thesis. Earlier he supervised and examined Masters theses and postgraduate internship reports at BRAC University, Bangladesh. He is currently involved in a research publication project on precariatisation, leave and return of Bangladeshi migrants in the Middle East.

Publications

BOOKS

The Construction Precariat: Dependence, Domination and Labour in Dhaka, Taylor & Francis (Routledge UK), 2021, 210 pp., ISBN 9780367355524.

The New Poverty of the Returnee Migrants, Taylor & Francis (Routledge UK), Forthcoming 2023.

REFEREED JOURNAL ARTICLES

Deshingkar, P., Abrar, C. R., Sultana, M. T., Haque, K. N. H., & Reza, M. S. (2019). Producing ideal Bangladeshi migrants for precarious construction work in Qatar. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 45(14), 2723-2738.

Reza, S. (2016). Hyper-individualized recruitment: Rural-urban labour migration and precarious construction work in Bangladesh. Migration, Mobility, & Displacement, 2(2), 40-61.

(This publication was awarded the Flinders University Best Research Higher Degree Student Publications Award in February 2017)

BOOK CHAPTERS

“Bangladeshi migrants in the Middle East: Precariatisation, leave and return amid COVID-19” in an edited book to be published by Springer and Qatar University (Forthcoming 2022).

“Understanding the gaps: The national statistics and the household remittance flow” with Tasneem Siddiqui, Yar Mahbub Chowdhury and Saira Afrin in The other face of globalization:  COVID-19, international labour migrants and left-behind families in Bangladesh, edited by Tasneem Siddiqui (Bangladesh Civil Society for Migrants & RMMRU, 2021), pp. 79-100, ISBN 9789843499776.

POLICY BRIEFS

Abrar, C. R., Deshingkar, P., Taslima Sultana, M., Haque, K. N. H. & Reza, M. S. (2017). Emic perspectives on brokering international migration for construction from Bangladesh to Qatar. Publisher: Migrating out of Poverty Consortium, University of Sussex, UK.

Abrar, C. R. & Reza, M. S. (2014). Internal Migrant Workers and the Construction Sector in Bangladesh: Tackling Informality and Exploitative Labour Practices. Publisher: Migrating out of Poverty Consortium, University of Sussex, UK.

Siddiqui, T. & Reza, M. S. (2014). Labour Migration from Bangladesh 2013: Achievements and Challenges. Publisher: RMMRU, Dhaka.

POLICY BACKGROUND PAPER

Vawda, A., & Sarr, L. R. (2013). Bangladesh education sector review: seeding fertile ground-education that works for Bangladesh (No. 86237, 204 pp.). Publisher: World Bank Group, Washington, D.C. (contributed a section on labour migration and skills)

EMPIRICAL RESEARCH REPORTS

Srivastava, R. S., Sutradhar, R., Abrar, C. R., Reza, M. S., Adhikari, J., & Gurung, G. (2015). Internal Labour Migration to the Construction Sector in South Asia and its Impact on Poverty and Wellbeing. Publisher: Global Knowledge Partnership on Migration and Development (KNOMAD) of the World Bank Group: Washington, D.C.

Abrar, C. R., Rajan, S. I., Ruhunage, L. K. & Siddiqui, T. (2014) Institutional Strengthening of the Office of Labour Attaché: Research Findings from Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka. Publisher: University of Sussex, UK (I assisted the lead researchers and drafted some substantial sections of the research report on Bangladesh).

The Asia Foundation (2013). Labour Migration trends and Patterns: Bangladesh, India, and Nepal 2013. Publisher: The Asia Foundation, Nepal (I collected primary data, led research team, and assisted Professor C. R. Abrar in data analysis and report writing).

CDKN (2012). Climate Change-induced Migration in Bangladesh. Publisher: Sussex Centre for Migration Research, UK and Climate & Development Knowledge Network (CDKN). (I assisted Professor Tasneem Siddiqui in preparing the literature review section)

RMMRU (2010). Targeting Good Governance: Incorporation of Migration in the 6^th Five-Year Plan. Publisher: RMMRU, University of Dhaka (I assisted Professor Tasneem Siddiqui in preparing the draft policy paper)

MAGAZINE ARTICLES

Reza, M. S. (2014). Global Food Business and Multinational Companies, Publisher: Sangskriti, Dhaka, 2014.

Reza, M. S. (2013). Climate Change Induced Migration: Future Challenges and Opportunities for Bangladesh, Publisher: The Foreign Affairs Insights and Reviews (FAIR), Issue no. 4; Volume no. 1; Dhaka.

NEWSPAPER ARTCILES IN BANGLA

Reza, M. S. (2014). Construction work: recruitment and precariousness; The Daily Bhorer Kagoj, 28 November 2014.

Reza, M. S. (2014). Globalisation or precarious labour?; The Daily Bhorer Kagoj; 11 December 2014.

Reza, M. S. (2014). The need for good recruitment practise to tackle irregular migration through sea; The Daily Bhorer Kagoj; 18 December 2014.

Reza, M. S. (2014). The need for transparent and realistic recruitment framework; The Daily Bonik Barta; 18 December 2014.

Reza, M. S. (2014). Rethinking migration; The Daily Bonik Barta; 28 July 2014.

Education

PhD in Migration and Labour Exploitation, Flinders University, Australia

MSS in International Relations, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh (1^st class, 1^st position)

BSS in International Relations, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh

Dr Ayan Roy

Assistant Professor of Bioinformatics

I am an Assistant Professor in Bioinformatics at AUW. I joined AUW in the Spring of 2023. I am interested in teaching courses related to bioinformatics and computational biology that include multi-omics analyses, genome biology and evolution, computer-aided drug designing, R and Python programming, machine learning and AI. Previously I worked as an Associate Research Scientist in the Center for Infection and Immunity (CII) at the Columbia University, USA. I did my postdoctoral research from the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. I am a computational biologist with an expertise of 13 years in the fields of sequence analysis, multi-omics data analysis, evolutionary modeling and computer-aided drug designing. I hold a Ph.D. degree from the University of North Bengal, India.

Teaching

1. Advance Bioinformatics with Programming [COURSE CODE: BINF4000]
2. BIOL 1100: BIOLOGY I- LECTURE
3. BIOL.1101: BIOLOGY II LECTURE

Research Interests:

• Multi-omics analyses and predictive modeling using machine learning and AI
• Genome sequence analyses
• Codon usage biology
• Computer-aided drug designing
• Viral and bacterial pathogenomics

Project involvements:
1) Multi-omics analyses in long-COVID, Autism and Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (in collaboration with Columbia University, USA)

2) Biomarker discovery in Autism using machine learning and AI (in collaboration with Columbia University, USA)

3) Computational drug design against coronavirus (in collaboration with Teesside University, UK and Mangosuthu University, South Africa)

2) Codon usage and evolution of pathogenesis in viral and bacterial pathogens causing human infections (in collaboration with South China Agricultural University, China)

Research Collaborations

• Prof Ian Lipkin, Columbia University, NY, USA
• Yongyi Shen, South China Agricultural University, China
• Claudio Angione, Teesside University, United Kingdom
• devashan Naidoo, Mangosuthu University, South Africa
• Balachandar Vellingiri, Central University of Punjab, India
• Surajit Basak, Scientist-C, ICMR, India

* I am currently accepting students for thesis, and Teaching Assistants

* I am looking for collaborations in multi-omics at AUW

Book Chapters.

Singh B, Roy A*. (2020). Metagenomics and Drug-Discovery. In ed. Metagenomics: Techniques, Applications, Challenges and Opportunities. Springer Nature.

Journal Articles

Journal Manuscripts (Published: 43)

Impact Factor: 274.563 (JCR Thomson Reuters impact factor)

Citations: 557

h-index: 13

i10-index: 16

Publications:

Google scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=BUYlhpsAAAAJ&hl=en

Selected Publications:

1. Roy A, Guo F, Singh B, Gupta S, Paul K, Chen X, Sharma NR, Jaishee N, Irwin DM, Shen Y. (2021). Base Composition and Host Adaptation of the SARS-CoV-2: Insight From the Codon Usage Perspective. Frontiers in Microbiology 12:548275.(IF: 6.064)
2. Kar P, Saleh-E-In MM, Jaishee N, Anandraj A, Kormuth E, Vellingiri B, Angione C, Rahman PKSM, Pillay S, Sen A, Naidoo D, Roy A*, Choi YE. (2022) Computational profiling of natural compounds as promising inhibitors against the spike proteins of SARS-CoV-2 wild type and the variants of concern, viral cell-entry process, and cytokine storm in COVID-19. Journal of Cellular Biochemistry123(5):964-986. (IF: 4.480)

*Corresponding Author

Dr Ayan Saha

Assistant Professor of Bioinformatics

Dr. Ayan Saha is an Assistant Professor of Bioinformatics at the Asian University for Women (AUW). Dr. Ayan has joined AUW during Fall, 2022. Before joining AUW, Dr. Ayan worked for a year and a half as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology at East West University, Dhaka.

Dr. Ayan graduated from the University of Chittagong with a BSc (Hons.) in Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology degree in 2012 and completed an MSc in Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology in 2013. Later, Dr. Ayan completed his second MSc in Translational Oncology degree in 2015 at the University of Hull, UK with a Commonwealth Shared Scholarship. There, he worked on the role of bisphosphonates (BPs) in the MMP-2 level of breast cancer. Later in 2016, Dr. Ayan went to Australia to start his doctoral research at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) under the TF Scholarship. His research focused on new treatments for high-risk paediatric acute lymphoblastic leukaemia. As part of his project, he developed a noble in vivo patient-derived xenograft (PDX) mouse model to study minimal residual disease (MRD) cells, identical with patient samples. Dr. Ayan received his PhD in medicine from the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, in 2020.

Dr. Ayan has been awarded the National Institute of Physiological Sciences Internship with Fellowship, Japan-2014, Commonwealth Shared Scholarship, UK-2014 and Children’s Cancer Institute Completion Scholarship, Australia-2019.

Research interests

Cancer Biology, Clinical Epidemiology and Computational Biology

Project involvements

• Risk Factors Related to Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease in Bangladesh.
• Genetics, clinical profile and risk factors of Down syndrome population of Bangladesh.

Journal Articles

• A Saha*, KKS Marma, A Rashid, N Tarannum, S Das, et al. (2022) ‘Risk factors associated with self-medication among the indigenous communities of Chittagong Hill Tracts, Bangladesh’. PLOS ONE 17(6): e0269622.
• TB Mahmood, A Saha, MI Hossan, S Mizan, SMAS Aman, and AS Chowdhury. (2021) ‘A next generation sequencing (NGS) analysis to reveal genomic and proteomic mutation landscapes of SARS-CoV-2 in South Asia’. Current Research in Microbial Sciences; Volume 2; 100065
• M Das, S Das, AT Bhuiyan, SD Nath, R Biswas, JD Gupta, A Ball, MJ Alam, MH Karim, RK Nath, and A Saha*. (2021) ‘Factors affecting the outcome of the usage of high-flow nasal cannula on severe or critically ill COVID-19 patients: a multicentric study from a developing nation’. Asian Journal of Medical and Biological Research; 7(3), 260–272.
• A Saha*, MM Ahsan, T-U Quader, MUS Shohan, S Naher, P Dutta, et al. (2021) ‘Characteristics, management and outcomes of critically ill COVID-19 patients admitted to ICU in hospitals in Bangladesh: a retrospective study’. The Journal of Preventive Medicine and Hygiene; Apr 29;62(1):E33-E45.
• FM Omar, A Saha, I Khan, Z Hassan, and L Ali. (2021) ‘Pro12Ala Polymorphism in PPAR-γ Gene of Impaired Glucose Tolerance Subjects in Bangladeshi Population’. (2021) Journal of Bangladesh Academy of Sciences 44 (2):179-89.
• A Saha*, MM Ahsan, T-U Quader, S Naher, F Akter, HMH Mehedi, et al. (2020) ‘Clinical characteristics and outcomes of COVID-19 infected diabetic patients admitted in ICUs of the southern region of Bangladesh’. Diabetes & Metabolic Syndrome: Clinical Research & Reviews; Dec 30;15(1):229-235.
• RH Chowdhury, I Bhuiyan, A Saha*, IMHAI Mosleh, S Mondol, and CMS Ahmed. (2014) ‘Identification and analysis of potential targets in Streptococcus sanguinis using computer aided protein data analysis’. Advances and Applications in Bioinformatics and Chemistry; Dovepress 7.45.
• RH Chowdhury, R Saha, KMM Islam, K Fatema, F Afrin, MM Hossain, and A Saha. (2014) ‘Analgesic and neuropharmacological effect on ethyl acetate extract of ipomoea pes-tigridis in albino mice’. European Scientific Journal; 10 (27): 344–353.
• KUM Ashraf, P Barua, A Saha, N Mahammad, J Ferdoush, D Das, MH Hussain, and JM Alam. (2014) ‘An immunoinformatics approach towards epitope based vaccine design through computational tools from Bungarus caeruleus’s neurotoxin’. Journal of Young Pharmacists; 6(2): 35–43.
• MM Rahman, R Habib, MA Hasan, MA Amin, A Saha, M Shohel, and A Mannan. (2013) ‘Comparative assessment on in vitro antioxidant activities of ethanol extracts from Averrhoa bilimbi, Gymnema sylvestreand, Capsicum frutescens’. Pharmacognosy Research; 6(1): 36–41.
• J Das, Z Datta, A Saha, SM Nur, P Barua, MM Rahman, KAA Chowdhury, MM Chowdhury, RH Chowdhury, and A Mannan. (2013) ‘A comprehensive study on antioxidant, antibacterial, cytotoxic and phytochemical properties of Averrhoa carambola’. Journal of Bioassay; 2:5.
• A Saha, MJ Alam, KUM Ashraf, and A Mannan. (2013) ‘Computational analysis of bovine alpha-1 collagen sequences’. Bioinformation; 9(1): 042–048.

*Corresponding Author

Working Papers / Reports

• Downregulated expression of APC and AXIN2 is aggravating multiple cancer prognosis: Evidence from a multi-omics study.
• Structural analysis and conformational dynamics of SOCS1 gene mutations involved in Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma.
• Prevalence and determinants of self-medication practices among general population: A cross-sectional study in Thimphu, Bhutan and Chattogram, Bangladesh.
• Risk factors associated with self-medication among the garments worker of Bangladesh.

Dr P Mosae Selvakumar

Associate Professor in Chemistry

Dr Sayed Mohammed Nazim Uddin

Associate Professor of Environmental Science; Head of Science and Math

Research

Dr Xingkui Wang

Assistant Professor of Philosophy

Xingkui Wang is Assistant Professor of Philosophy in the Program Philosophy, Politics & Economics at AUW since August 2021. He has previously taught Philosophy and Art History at the Mongolia International University in Ulaanbaatar. Dr. Wang got his PhD in Philosophy from the University of Munich in 2018, where he focused on German Idealism, especially the Philosophy of Hegel. Before that he has studied Art History in Bremen, Germany and Maryland, USA.

Research

Dr. Wang’s research focuses on Aesthetics, German Idealism, and Comparative Philosophy. He is currently working on the Aesthetics of Hegel, examining the essential experience of being finite in the infinite mediated through art. As for comparative Philosophy Dr. Wang concerns with the issue of what enables the dialogue between different philosophic traditions possible.

Publications

Journal Articles

“A Critical Examination of the Dialectic in Hegel and Laozi” (in Chinese). In: Journal of Comparative Philosophy and Comparative Culture, No. 13 (2019), Pages 83-93. The Journal is published by College of Philosophy, Wuhan University.

Working Papers / Reports

„Hegels Kritik an der Seelenwanderung“ (Hegel’s Critique of Reincarnation). Talk at the biennial International Hegel-Conference of the International Hegel Society, University of Tampere, June 2018. The revised Paper has been submitted in September 2018 to the Hegel Society and will be published in the Hegel Yearbook (Hegel-Jahrbuch) 2020.

„Das Subjektive als das Übergreifende: Hegels Dialektik der Subjektivität“ (The Subject as that of the Grasping: Hegel’s Dialectic of Subjectivity). Talk at the biennial Symposium of the Swiss Philosophical Society (The theme of the Symposium war: What is Spirit?), University of Basel, September 2018.

Mr Mohammad Masudur Rahman

Instructor of Performing Arts

Research

Dr Deepasri Baul

Andrew W. Mellon Fellow in the Humanities

Deepasri Baul has joined as Andrew W. Mellon Fellow in the Humanities. She will teach courses in the colonial history of modern south Asia and academic writing in the Humanities. She is a former postdoctoral fellow at the Indian Institute of Sciences Education and Research, Mohali. In the past, she has taught in the University of Delhi and worked as a researcher at the Max Weber Stiftung, India. She has a PhD in History from Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi. Her academic interests include modern south Asia, urban studies, religious politics and histories of capitalism in the Global South.

Teaching

LCSA1082: How We Got Here: South Asia Under British Colonialism

WSEM2001-4: Writing Seminar II

Research

Modern south Asia, urban studies, religious politics, histories of capitalism in the Global South.

Project involvements

Popular print cultures in contemporary North India

Geo-spatial mapping of the history of Delhi’s neighbourhoods.

Grants Obtained

2022         Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship in the Humanities

2020         Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences in IISER, Mohali

2015        Charles Wallace India Trust Research Grant

2015        Foreign Travel Grant by the Indian Council of Historical Research

Book Chapters, etc.

‘Audhyogik Kranti’ in Devesh Vijay ed., Adhunik Europe Ka Itihas Ayam Evam Dishaen, Delhi, Hindi Madhyam Karyanvaya Nideshalaya, 2010 (ISBN: 9789380172323)

Journal Articles

‘The Improbability of a Temple: Hindu Mobilisation and Urban Space in the Delhi Shiv Mandir Agitation of 1938’, Studies in History (2020): 0257643020956624.

Other Publications

‘Lands of the Gods: The colonial roots of the Ayodhya verdict’, The Caravan, Vol. 12, Issue 1, January 2020

Dr Francesca Pierini

Andrew W. Mellon Fellow in the Humanities

Francesca Pierini has recently joined the university as an Andrew W. Mellon Fellow in the Humanities. She will teach courses in Women’s Studies, Literature, and Academic Writing in the Humanities. She is a former Adjunct Lecturer at the English Department of University of Basel, as well as Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute of European and American Studies, Academia Sinica, Taiwan. Her academic interests include Cultural Studies, Anglophone Literary Representations of Italian Culture, and the Modern and Contemporary Anglophone Romance Novel.

Teaching

Critical Theory, Women’s Studies, Anglophone Literature, Academic Writing in the Humanities.

Research interests

Cultural Studies, Anglophone Literary Representations of Italian Culture, the Modern and Contemporary Anglophone Romance Novel

Grants Obtained

2022                Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship in the Humanities

2018                The Popular Culture Association of Australia and New Zealand   Conference Postdoctoral Bursary

2018                Kathleen Gilles Seidel Grant

2018–2019      Academia Sinica Postdoctoral Research Fellowship

Book Chapters in Edited Volumes

2023       “Imploding Fireworks: Love and Self-knowledge in the Contemporary Italian Sentimental Novel.” In Love and the Politics of Intimacy, edited by Jordan Savage, Stanislava Dikova, and Wendy McMahon. London: Bloomsbury Publishing. Forthcoming in January 2023.

2023      “La Fiaba Oscura: Narrating Italy in Sarah Hall’s How to Paint a Dead Man.” In Sarah Hall: Critical Essays, edited by Elke D’hoker and Alexander Beaumont, 173-193. Canterbury: Gylphi Contemporary Writers (Critical Essays series).

2021       “Roma Spelled Backwards: Love and Heterotopic Space in Contemporary Romance Novels Set in Italy.” In The Routledge Companion to Romantic Love, edited by Ann Brooks, 356–365. London/New York: Routledge.

2021      “Michel Foucault et Edward Said: Le savoir-pouvoir et le fondement de l’analyse du discours colonial.” In Foucault et… Les Liaisons Dangereuses de Michel Foucault, edited by A. Brossat and D. Lorenzini, 103–126. Paris: Vrin.

2021      “Such is the Working of the Southern Mind: A Postcolonial Reading of E.M. Forster’s Italian Narratives.” In The World of E.M. Forster – E.M. Forster and The World, edited by Krzysztof Fordonski and Anna Kwiatkowska, 7–30. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. (Re-published with permission from the Journal of Anglo-American Studies).

2020       “What We Bring to the World: Narrative-Making as Hermeneutical Practice in Yann Martel’s Life of Pi.” In Critical Insights: Life of Pi, edited by Ádám T. Bogár, 188–202. Amenia, NY: Salem Press/Grey House Publishing.

Journal Articles

2023        “Venice and the Novella: The Construction of Otherness in Daphne du Maurier’s Don’t Look Now and Ian McEwan’s The Comfort of Strangers.” The Journal of the Short Story in English. Forthcoming.

2022        “Discursive Intertextuality, Parody, and Mise en Abyme in A.S. Byatt’s Short Stories.” Cultural Intertexts 12 (2022): 123-139.

2022        “Metagenre and Romance: A Response to Burkhard Niederhoff.” Connotations: A Journal for Critical Debate 31 (2022): 100–111.

2021        “Sharing the Same Soil: Sally Rooney’s Normal People and the Coming-of-Age Romance.” Prospero: A Journal of Foreign Literatures and Cultures (Università degli Studi di Trieste) XXVI (2021): 141–166.

2021        “Narrative as Mould; Narrative as Modulation: Marie Cardinal, Simona Vinci, and Elizabeth Wurtzel’s Narratives of Illness and Healing.” Comparative American Studies: An International Journal 18, no. 2 (2021): 260–273. Special issue on Elizabeth Wurtzel edited by Rachael McLennan and Maria Torres-Quevedo.

2020         “Olive Skin; Chocolate Eyes: The Legacy of The Sheik on Descriptive Patterns of the Italian Romantic Hero in Harlequin Short Contemporaries.” The Journal of Popular Romance Studies 9 (2020): 1–19. Special issue dedicated to E.M. Hull’s The Sheik.

2020          “The Imponderable Bloom: E.M. Forster’s ‘The Machine Stops’ on Isolation, Social Distancing, and Online Lecturing.” The CEA Critic 82, vol. 3 (2020): 285–289. Special Issue “Living the Teaching Life in a Time of Covid-19.”

2020       “Multitudes of Otherness: Italian and Indian Crowds in E.M. Forster’s Where Angels Fear to Tread and A Passage to India.” Journal of Anglo-Italian Studies 17 (2019): 75–99.

2020        “‘He Looks like He’s Stepped Out of a Painting’: The Idealization and Appropriation of Italian Timelessness through the Experience of Romantic Love.” Journal of Popular Romance Studies 9 (2020): 1–16.

2019        “Anglophone Popular Narratives of Italian Otherness and the Politics of Orientalizing Southern Europe.” Via: Voices in Italian Americana 30, no. 2 (2019): 19–32.

2018        “Such is the Working of the Southern Mind: A Postcolonial Reading of E.M. Forster’s Italian Narratives.” Journal of Anglo-Italian Studies 16 (2017–2018): 27–54.

Report

2022        “Critical Approaches to the Anglophone Modern and Contemporary Romance Novel: From A Room with a View to Fifty Shades of Grey.” Journal for the Study of Popular Romance 11 (2022): 1–21.

Matthew Glotfelter

Director of Pre-Undergraduate Programs

Senior Instructor of English

MS, Linguistics

CELTA

Rehana Khan

Director of General Studies

MA, English Literature

Master Trainer ELT

John Remarek

Pre-Undergraduate Registrar

Sharmin Rahmatullah

Reading & Writing: Senior Instructor

Abdul Wahid

Reading & Writing: Instructor

Master of Education (TESOL)

Cambridge CELTA

Wahid has four years of experience in teaching English at tertiary level. Before joining AUW as a Language Instructor, he taught Language and Linguistics at the University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh (ULAB) and at IUBAT – International University of Business Agriculture and Technology, Dhaka. He completed his Master of Education (TESOL) from the University of South Australia (UniSA), with a thesis in refugee education. Wahid also has a CELTA from the British Council. Previously, he worked as an Interpreter in Africa under the United Nations for some time. During his University years in Adelaide, he attended the evening school of ‘Ann Peter’s School of Acting’ which sparked his interest in psychology of human behavior and communication. His research interest includes inner speech and bilingualism, psychology of language, education psychology and the like.

Master’s Thesis:

“Factors that affect the academic performance of African refugee students at UniSA”

Conference Paper:   

1. Wahid, “Learning and Education – shouldn’t they be same? : A conceptual review”. In the pursuit of Quality in Higher Education: Challenges Ahead, (2019).

Working Paper:

“Intervention of Self-limiting L1 Inner Speech during L2 Presentations: A Study of Bangla-English Late Bilinguals”

Supervised Theses:

Postgraduate

1. Face to Face and Online ELT Classes: A Comparative Study
2. Academic Self-concept and Academic Performance: A Co-relational Study
3. Role of L1 in English Language Learning and Teaching: A Perspective of Schools in Bangladesh
4. Challenges in Adapting Reading Materials in an ELT Class: A Case Study

Undergraduate

5. The Role of Previous Knowledge in Reading Comprehension
6. Individual Learner Differences and Speaking Performance : A Case Study
7. Persuasive Techniques used in English Bulletins in Bangladeshi Television Channels
8. First Language Acquisition of A Three Year Old Bangladeshi Child : A Case Study

Conducted Workshops:

“Your Language Thoughts, Your Language Reality”; 2^nd September 2019; University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh (ULAB) Auditorium.

“You Are Who You Think You Are”; 3rd April, 2019; University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh (ULAB) Auditorium.

“Self-development and Learning”; 13th November, 2018; University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh (ULAB) Auditorium.

Kausar Ferdous

ESL Intensive: Senior Instructor

MA, English Literature

MA, ELT

Homayra Binta Hafiz Silvee

Listening & Speaking: Instructor

Education

MA, Literature in English

Teaching

Presentation Skills

Debate and Public Speaking

Md Noman Udin

Mathematics: Senior Instructor

MA, Mathematics

Noman was a member of the mathematics Faculty at Asian University for Women (AUW) for over seven years (From 2010 July to 2017 December). During this time, he worked to develop Mathematics Curriculum and implementing several large scale projects at AUW. In 2018 he went to University Technology Malaysia, Malaysia, for higher study in Mathematics. In 2021 he came back to AUW and join as an instructor of Precalculus in the Access Academy (AA). His responsibilities include lecturing, develop clear learning objectives and prepare comprehensive syllabi.

He received MS degree specialized in Mathematical Science from the university Technology Malaysia, Malaysia. He received a special Award by Faculty of Science University Technology Malaysia 2021. He also obtained Bsc (Hons) in Applied Mathematics from the university of Chittagong.

Research

Cosmology, Partial differential Equations (PDE)

Umme Aymun Siddiqua

Computer Studies: Instructor

MA, Computer Science

Umme Aymun Siddiqua received B.Sc. in Computer Science and Engineering from the International Islamic University Chittagong, Bangladesh in 2016 and her M.Eng. degree in Computer Science and Engineering from the Toyohashi University of Technology, Japan in 2019. Currently, she is serving as a Junior Instructor in Computer Science at Asian University for Women. Her research interests include natural language processing, multimodal opinion mining and knowledge discovery from social media data especially stance detection, sentiment analysis, emotion analysis, and hate speech detection using deep learning. She is the author or co-author of several articles in journals, conferences and research workshop contributions and presented her research at national and international conferences in the USA and China. She has received recognition for her excellent academic performance and research activities, including Merit-based Scholarship, Monbukagakusho Honors Scholarship and Best Paper Award.

Courses Teach:

Introduction to Computing and Programming
CS50’s Introduction to Computer Science by Harvard University (Lab)

Research Interests:
Natural Language Processing
Social Media Analysis
Multimodal Opinion Mining and Knowledge Discovery
Computational Linguistics
Machine Learning
Deep Learning

Journal Articles

Tweet Stance Detection using Multi-Kernel Convolution and Attentive LSTM Variants
Umme Aymun Siddiqua, Abu Nowshed Chy, and Masaki Aono
IEICE Transactions on Information and Systems (IEICE TOIS), Vol.E102-D, No.12, pp.2493-2503, December 2019.

Exploiting Transfer Learning and Hand-Crafted Features in a Unified Neural Model for Identifying Actionable Informative Tweets
Abu Nowshed Chy, Umme Aymun Siddiqua, and Masaki Aono
Journal of Information Processing, Vol.29, pp.16-29, January 2021.

Peer-Reviewed International Conferences

A Neural Network Model to Identify the Crisis-related Actionable Informative Tweets for Disaster Management.
Abu Nowshed Chy, Umme Aymun Siddiqua, and Masaki Aono
Proceedings of the 2020 IEEE Region 10 Symposium (TENSYMP), 5-7 June 2020, Dhaka, Bangladesh. Best Paper Award (as a co-author)

Tweet Stance Detection Using an Attention based Neural Ensemble Model
Umme Aymun Siddiqua, Abu Nowshed Chy, and Masaki Aono
Proceedings of the 2019 Conference of the North American Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics: Human Language Technologies (NAACL-HLT 2019), ACL, 2-5 June 2019, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.

Stance Detection on Microblog Focusing on Syntactic Tree Representation
Umme Aymun Siddiqua, Abu Nowshed Chy, and Masaki Aono
3rd International Conference on Data Mining and Big Data (DMBD 2018), Springer, 17-22 June 2018, Shanghai, China.

Combining a Rule-based Classifier with Ensemble of Feature Sets and Machine Learning Techniques for Sentiment Analysis on Microblog
Umme Aymun Siddiqua, Tanveer Ahsan, and Abu Nowshed Chy
International Conference on Computer and Information Technology (ICCIT 2016), IEEE, 18-20 December 2016, Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Combining a Rule-based Classifier with Weakly Supervised Learning for Twitter Sentiment Analysis
Umme Aymun Siddiqua, Tanveer Ahsan, and Abu Nowshed Chy
International Conference on Innovations in Science, Engineering and Technology (ICISET 2016), IEEE, 28-29 October 2016, Chittagong, Bangladesh.

International Research Workshops

KDEHatEval at SemEval-2019 Task5: A Neural Network Model for Detecting Hate Speech in Twitter
Umme Aymun Siddiqua, Abu Nowshed Chy, and Masaki Aono
Proceedings of the 13th International Workshops on Semantic Evaluation (SemEval 2019) ACL, 6-7 June 2019, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.

Neural Networks and Support Vector Machine based Approach for Classifying Tweets by Information Types at TREC2018 Incident Streams Task
Abu Nowshed Chy, Umme Aymun Siddiqua, and Masaki Aono
Proceedings of the 27th Text REtrieval Conference (TREC 2018), NIST, 14-16 November 2018, Maryland, USA.

Publication Records Summary:
https://scholar.google.co.jp/citations?user=zVDq8EAAAAAJ&hl=en

Ashraf Siddique

Teacher Training and Development: Senior Instructor

MA, TESOL

CELTA

DELTA

Iqbal-e-Rasul

Admissions & Testing: Senior Instructor

BA in English, MA TESOL from NSU, Cambridge CELTA

Mr Iqbal-e-Rasul joined AUW in January 2018 as an Instructor. At present, he is serving as Senior Instructor of English Language, and Coordinator of admission and placement assessments.

Mr. Iqbal has worked across eduction, corporate nad development industries relating to teaching and training in different capacities.

He has been into language and communication teaching and training since 2007 across Chittagong and Dhaka. He has worked in NSU, BRACU and IUB Dhaka and worked in English in Action as a Principal Core Trainer. He worked as HP Trainer for British Council for the trainings of IELTS, IELTS teacher training, Business Communication, and soft skills.

Ashfeen Aribea

General Studies: Senior Instructor

MA, Molecular Biology

Arif Chowdhury

Learning Center

MA, ELT
(General Studies, ACCESS)

I have been teaching at AUW in General Studies Program for developing four language skills for more than 5 months and I am currently teaching academic Reading and Writing at AUW’s Pre-UG (Access) program.

Previously, I have taught various ESL, EFL and Academic English, and departmental courses at Huddersfield University, British Council recognized English language centers, UK and University of Creative Technology Chittagong.

My academic qualifications include a master’s degree from London Metropolitan University in Int’l ELT and Applied Language Studies; a Trinity CertTESOL; a Teaching English for Academic Purposes (TEAP) certificate from London School of Economics (LSE); and more than 10 years of experience as an educator.

Sherry Rasmussen

Senior Instructor

Sherry, to whom Illinois TESOL granted the Outstanding Teacher of the Year award in 2022, is from Chicago, Illinois, and has been teaching at EAPs for more than 30 years.  She recently semi-retired from DePaul University, where she met Kamal Ahmad on one of his visits there, and afterwards, wanted to come to AUW.

Teaching

Teaching Pre-UG Reading Across Disciplines 5 and First-Year Graduate Writing Seminar

Also observing new teachers and giving feedback

Will contribute to AUW’s teacher-training program

Publications

Interviews as Outreach: Activities & Services for Students, TESOL HEIS Newsletter

May 2017; ITBE Link, Spring 2017
The Rewards of Mentoring, ITBE Link Summer 2013, Vol. 41 No. 2

Senior Citizens and ESL Students: The Perfect Match ITBE Link, Winter 2012, Vol. 39, No. 4

StoryCorps: More Than Just Listening Comprehension  TESOL IEPIS Newsletter December 2011

StoryCorps: More Than Just Listening Comprehension, ITBE Link Fall 2011, Vol. 39 No. 3

“Creating a Safe Learning Environment” (co-written with Judith Kent), ITBE Newsletter Fall 2000, Vol. 28 No. 3

Book review: Voices in Literature, MexTESOL Journal, Vol 17, No. 4, April 1994.

Presentations:

Interviews as Outreach, TESOL 2015, Toronto, Canada.

Senior Citizens as ESL Conversation Partners & Interview Subjects, Florida TESOL

2012, Orlando.
StoryCorps: More Than Just Listening Comprehension, TESOL 2011, New Orleans.

Senior Citizens as ESL Conversation Partners & Interview Subjects (as a poster session), TESOL 2011, New Orleans.

Senior Citizens as ESL Conversation Partners & Interview Subjects, ITBE 2011, MidTESOL 2010 (Dubuque).

Revisiting Sexism and Heterosexism in TESOL, MexTESOL 2009, Monterrey, Mex. Teaching & Observing Negotiating Strategies in Small-group Discussions (co-presenter), ITBE 2007

Sexism and Heterosexism in ESOL Classes, MexTESOL annual convention 1993, Puerto Vallarta; FEULE (a conference for foreign language teachers) 1993, Zacatecas ; and MexTESOL Academic Saturday, 1994, Guadalajara.

Kerri Nicol

Senior Instructor

Kerri Nicol is a new Senior English Instructor in the AUW Foundation program. She has a bachelor’s degree in ESL Education from Canada and a master’s degree in TESOL from Australia. She has been teaching ESL and EAP for over 25 years in Asia, Europe, Australia & Canada. She has taught at many international schools, universities and in English language schools in these regions.

Teaching

Language & Composition (Writing), Level 2 Foundation

Reading Course, Levels 2 & 3 Foundation

Jeff Martin

Senior Instructor

MEd, Linguistics
(ACCESS, Undergraduate)

Jeffrey Martin was appointed a Senior Instructor in the Access Academy in 2022.  He comes to AUW with more than 30 years’ language teaching experience at tertiary institutions in Japan, China, UAE, and Kuwait.  He completed an MEd Applied Linguistics at Temple University Japan and holds an MA in Buddhist Studies and a BA in History.

Afrida Oishee

Senior Instructor

MA, Disaster Management
(ACCESS)

Education

Faiz Ahmad

Senior Instructor

MA, Physics
(ACCESS)

Faiz Ahmed is the Instructor in Pre-Calculus, Access Academy from Spring 2018 and teaching at AUW since Summer II, 2016 (Pre-Access Academy). Faiz graduated from the University of Chittagong (Bangladesh), in Physics with both first class results. Before joining AUW, he worked for Presidency International School (Cambridge affiliated) and Bangladesh Elementary School (NC English medium) for 5 years. He actively participated in numerous training sessions conducted by local and international experts on teaching methods, lesson planning, classroom management, student psychology etc. In 2017 he successfully completed AuthorAID (based in Oxford, UK) grant proposal and research writing online course and obtained Merit grade. Mr Ahmed is also one of the 29 listed junior researchers from South Asia selected by NABIC & BCAS (Dhaka) and NERSC (Bergen, Norway).

Troyee Barua

Instructor

I am the instructor of mathematics in the Pre-UG program from spring 2023. I also worked as an instructor of Physics at AUW’s access academy from 2019-2020. Previously, I was a Principal of Bharateswari Homes, a residential school and college from Sep 2020 to Dec 2023. Moreover, I taught Mathematics and Physics in the Cambridge curriculum and the National Curriculum of Bangladesh. I actively participated in numerous training sessions conducted by local and international experts on teaching methods, student psychology, administration, leadership skill, etc.

I received B.Sc. (Hons) and an M.Sc degree in physics. Further, I completed a master of philosophy in medical physics. I also completed a Bachelor of education course.

Research

Research interests: Naturally Occurred Radioactivity and Heavy Metals Concentrations in Wild Mushrooms in Chittagong Hill Tracts Area of Bangladesh

Grants Obtained:

Chittagong University of Engineering and Technology

Publications:

• Barua, T., Bhuian S. I., Hossain, S. et al. J Radiational Nucl Chem (2019) 322: 173. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-019-06579-6.
• Barua, Troyee;  Khandaker, Mayeen Uddin;  et al. International Journal of Environmental Analytical Chemistry (SEP 2021) https://doi.org/10.1080/03067319.2021.1974423

Presentations:

• “Radiological Assessment of Natural Radionuclides in Soil in Chattogram Hill Tracts of Bangladesh.”, 3rd International Conference on “Physics for Sustainable Development & Technology” organized by ICPSDT-2019, 18-19 December 2019.
• “Accumulation of Trace Elements by Wild Mushrooms in Chattogram Hill Tracts, Bangladesh”, International Conference on Physics – 2019, organized by Bangladesh Physical Society 07-09 February 2019.
• “Radioactivity and Heavy Metals Concentration in Wild Mushrooms in Hill Tracts Area of Chittagong, Bangladesh” – Fourth International Conference on Applications of RadiotraCers and Energetic Beams in Sciences (ARCEBS-2018) ll-17, November 2018 at Fort Raichak, Kolkata.
• “Importance of Practical Laboratory Experience in Secondary Physics Education”, 2nd International Conference on “Physics for Sustainable Development & Technology” organized by ICPSDT-2017, 10-11 December 2017.

BMK Haider

Instructor

MA, International Relations
MA, History
(ACCESS)

Sabrina Naoshin

Instructor

MBA (Pathways)

Nihida Nigar

Instructor

Nahida Nigar have joined AUW in March 2023 as an Instructor. She received B.Sc. Engg. and M.Sc. Engg. degree in Computer Science and Engineering from the University of Chittagong, Bangladesh in 2013 and 2016, respectively. She is currently an M.Phil candidate in Computer Science and Engineering at University of Chittagong.

She awarded the Chittagong University Scholarship from the University of Chittagong for studying in the M.Phil. Program in Computer Science and Engineering at CU.

During her career as an educator for more than 8 years, she taught at higher secondary and undergraduate levels of different institutions in Computer Science discipline.Currently, She is responsible for teaching a foundation in Computer Science as well as a base in Critical Thinking.

Teaching

Computer Concepts and Activities

Research interests

• Wireless adhoc and sensor network
• Network Security
• Machine/Deep learning
• Artificial intelligence

Project involvements

• An efficient encryption-secure communication using symmetric key
• A Proposed Framework for Fingerprintbased Voting System in Bangladesh
• Microcontroller based Autistic Child Monitoring System in Bangladesh
• Offline Plagiarism Detection with Natural Language Processing
• Pharmaceutical Drug Logistics System
• IoT Based Gas Leakage and Fire Detection System
• A General Review, Analysis, and Forecasting on COVID-19
• Self- Defense System for Women
• Predicting Weather Forecast with Machine Learning
• Gas Leakage and Fire Detection System
• GSM AND GPS Module Based Vehicle Safety and Accident Alarming System

Aysha Siddiqua

Instructor

BS, Biological Science
(Pathways)

My work mostly involves teaching English courses to pathways students and also mentoring them. In addition, updating of databases and spreadsheets, collecting data, supporting in events management and teacher trainings, student counseling, and formatting of pathways content while working under the supervision of pathways director. I joined Pathways in 2020 January.

Majored in Biological Sciences and minored in economics from Asian University for Women.

Research

Antibiotic resistance in the wild.

Senior Thesis: Antibiotic resistant bacteria at the human wildlife interface: A comparison of the terrestrial gecko (Hemidactylus frenatus) and aquatic Black softshell turtle (Nilssonia nigricans) in Chittagong, Bangladesh

Project involvements –

Phillott A.D., Siddiqua A., Weerasinghe C., Shaima N., Mehelin N., Naik N., Alam N., Salsavil R., Ali S., Sandez S. & Tran T. 2016. Challenges and opportunities for South Asian women in science. 3rd National Conference on Natural Science and Technology, 15-16th April 2016, Chittagong, Bangladesh.

Phillott A.D., Ikra Z.J., Balasubramaniam M., Bui T., Chelvan A., Hassan M., Islam L., Jawaid E., Naik N., Nawer A., Noshin Z., Sarkar S., Shafiul S., Siddiqua A., Shaima N., Tamang C., Tarique T., Thirukeswaran S., Wangmo K.P., Yasmin N. & Natasha F. 2016. Characterising microbes of the built environment: An opportunity for original, authentic research by undergraduate students studying environmental microbiology. 3rd National Conference on Natural Science and Technology, 15-16th April 2016, Chittagong, Bangladesh.

Israt Happy

Instructor

MA, Public Health
(Pathways)

Israt has always been passionate about teaching and this is her 4^th year at AUW as a faculty. She received her bachelor’s degree in Public Health from Asian University for Women in 2015 and also earned her Master’s degree in Public Health from American International University Bangladesh in 2017. Currently, she is responsible for teaching English Language course to Pre Access-Academy (PAA) students.  Previously, she educated PAA students for two years and taught Leadership Seminar course to Access Academy students for one year. Israt believes that instilling confidence into students enables them to be higher achievers in their lives. Hence, her lessons are focused on breeding confidence, allowing students to speak, make mistakes and learn at their own pace.

Fatema Nusrat

Instructor

Former Teaching Assistant in CS50 course (Introduction to Computer Science) at Asian University for Women.

Education:

MSc in Computer Engineering, Konya Technical University, Turkey

BSc in Computer Science and Engineering, International Islamic University Chittagong

Research Interest:

Artificial intelligence, Machine Learning, Deep Learning, Neural networks, Data Science

Research Publications

“Prediction of Diabetes Mellitus by using Gradient Boosting Classification” European Journal of Science and Technology, October 5, 2020

“Highly Accurate Spam Detection with the Help of Feature Selection and Data Transformation” The International Arab Journal of Information Technology (IAJIT) (under review)

Abu Nowhash Chowdhury

Junior Instructor

B.Sc. (Engg.) in Computer Science and Engineering

Abu Nowhash Chowdhury received his B.Sc. (Engg.) in Computer Science and Engineering from the International Islamic University Chittagong, Bangladesh in 2022. Currently, he is serving as a Junior Instructor in Computer Science at the Asian University for Women. His principal research interest includes opinion mining from informal social media data, measuring the informativeness of user-generated texts, deep learning technologies, computational linguistics, and natural language processing (NLP). However, he is always interested to explore other interdisciplinary research areas too. He published his research findings at two International conferences in India and Bangladesh. One of his recent articles was awarded the Best Paper Award at The 3rd International Conference on Innovations in Science, Engineering, and Technology (ICISET), IEEE, Bangladesh. Besides he received recognition for his excellent idea generation and software development skills at the National level Intra university Hackathon contest. He is very fond of learning and teaching programming languages. He has a great zeal to make a positive impact in the education, teaching, and research sectors.  He is always passionate to help young students deepen their interest in learning and research.

Courses Teach:

• CS Intensive (Computer Fundamentals and C Programming)
• Python Programming

Research Interests:

• Opinion Mining and Knowledge Discovery from Informal Social Media Data,
• Text Informativeness,
• Data Mining,
• Estimating Data Semantics,
• Information Retrieval,
• Natural Language Processing,
• Computational Linguistics,
• Deep Learning.

Peer-Reviewed International Conferences:

• Abu Nowhash Chowdhury, Shawon Guha, Nurul Amin, and Shahidul Islam Khan, “Exploiting Ensemble of Transformer Models for Detecting Informative Tweets”, IEEE India Council International Conference (INDICON), Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Guwahati, India, IEEE, 2021.
• Abu Nowhash Chowdhury, Shawon Guha, Nurul Amin, and Shahidul Islam Khan, “Exploiting Diverse Contextual Features through Transformers for Detecting Informative Tweets”, The 3rd International Conference on Innovations in Science, Engineering and Technology (ICISET), P.P-350~355, IEEE, Bangladesh, 2022. (Best Paper Awarded)

Publication Records Summary:

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=LUksIeoAAAAJ&hl

Tajnim Jahan

Junior Instructor

I have completed my graduation in Computer Science and Engineering department from International Islamic University Chittagong in 2019 and now pursuing my M.Sc. Engineering in CSE at Chittagong University of engineering and technology (CUET). Previously I worked as a Junior Instructor In a private polytechnic college in computer technology department for almost 1 year. Now I have joined in Asian University for women as Junior Instructor of Computer Science, Pre-UG in 2023.Here I am teaching Computer literacy subject. As I have interest in teaching and research filed so I am focused to this to grown my career.

Ruheya Khourshed

Junior Instructor

With a keen eye for detail and a natural aptitude for education, I am thrilled to join Asian University for Women (AUW) as a Junior Instructor of Mathematics for the Pre-Undergraduate Program. Throughout my four years of one-on-one tutoring experience with multiple students spanning from high school to university, I have honed my skills in creating a stimulating and supportive learning environment. With a BA in Economics and minors in Mathematics and Finance from AUW, I have a strong academic background that I am eager to apply to my role as an instructor. In addition, my experience as a Creative Director at Lussotica, a startup fashion label, and as HR Member at Youth’s Voice Organization, respectively, has given me valuable leadership and management skills. I am excited to contribute to the university’s mission of building a more progressive society through education and am delighted to be part of the esteemed faculty at AUW.

Teaching

Mathematics for the Pre-Undergraduate Program

Nargis Sultana

Junior Instructor

Highest Degree – MELT

Sofia Siddiqua

Junior Instructor

B.A. (Hons) in English Language & Literature

TESOL from North South University

Cambridge CELTA

Ms. Sofia joined AUW in August 2022 as a Junior English Language Instructor in the Pre-Undergraduate program. She has been working in the education industry since 2019. She has served United International University and Daffodil International University as a Lecturer. She is also a researcher and has a publication.

Isthina Rafique Rini

Junior Instructor

M.A in English from East Delta University

B.A (Hons.) in English from East Delta University

ACCESS and Pathways

Jannatul Akmam

Junior Instructor

ACCESS and Pathways

MA, English

Jannatul Akmam did BA and MA in English from Jahangirnagar University, Dhaka, Bangladesh. During her career of teaching for more than 9 years, she taught at higher secondary and tertiary levels of different institutions including teaching as an Adjunct Faculty of Core at Asian University for Women. She was awarded Fulbright Teaching Excellence and Achievement (TEA) Fellowship in Spring 2022 (Gender Cohort) and received professional development training at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, Massachusetts, USA. She has joined AUW in Fall 2022 as a Junior Instructor of English Language; and teaches ESL and Presentation Skills.

Research Interest: Education and Leadership of Muslim Women, Gender Studies, Post-colonial Studies, Disability Studies and Cultural Studies.

Research Works:

Gender Expectations and Balancing Identities: Education about Gender in High Schools in Bangladesh. (Presented online) Twenty-ninth International Conference on Learning at Universitat de Valencia – Facultat de Magisteri, Valencia, Spain, 13-15 July, 2022.

Eastern Women’s Entrepreneurship: Liberating the Enslaved Mind beyond the Patriarchal Gaze. Eastern Perspectives on Women’s Roles and Advancement in Business edited by Ela Burcu Uçel, by IGI Global, Hershey, PA, USA, EISBN13: 9781799887447 (Chapter 7, Page 139-154), February, 2022. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-7998-8742-3.ch007.

Islamic Schools in France: A Tool for Change towards Inclusiveness. Virtual Conference of New England Educational Assessment Network Fall Forum 2021, 5 November 2021.

Living Parallel-ly in Real and Virtual: Internet as an Extension of Self. (Co-authored with Nafisa Huq) Defining Identity and the Changing Scope of Culture in the Digital Age edited by Alison Novak and Imaani Jamillah El-Burki, by IGI Global, Hershey PA, USA, ISBN 9781522502128 (Chapter 14, Page 230-239), May, 2016. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-5225-0212-8.ch014

Women in War-Wounded or Wonderful? Relativity in Revelation (In the Light of Nasiruddin Yusuf’s “Guerilla” and Mrityunjay Devvrat’s “Children of War”). (Co-authored with Nafisa Huq and Prakash Sarkar) International Conference “Diasporas and Diversities: Teaching English in a Changing World”, Department of English, Independent University Bangladesh, 5-7 November 2015.

Partition across the Border: A Study of the novels The Shadow Lines by Amitav Ghosh and Clear Light of Day by Anita Desai. Trends in Indian English Novels edited by Nagraj G. Holeyannavar, Manglam Publisher, India, ISBN 9789382983231 (Page no. 222), 21 October, 2014.

Dream Identity beyond the Patriarchal Gaze: Liberating the Enslaved Mind. 1st International Conference on Social Science and Humanities August 23-25, 2014, Center for Social Science Research, School of Liberal Arts and Humanities, Independent University of Bangladesh.

New Police on the Block: Reading Contemporary Advertisement as Panopticon. Dissertation, Master of Arts Program, 2012. (Publication-in-progress)

Ngugi’s Petals of Blood: A Critical Analysis from Fanon’s Concept of Violence. Short Research Paper, Undergraduate Program, 2011. (Publication-in-progress)

Alexandra Urbanikova

Junior Instructor

MA, Mathematics
(ACCESS)

Antara Titikhsha Barua

Junior Instructor

BS, Bioinformatics
(ACCESS)

Antara joined AUW in Spring 2022. She graduated from AUW in May, 2021 with a BS degree
in Bioinformatics and double minors in Computer Science and Mathematics. During her
senior year, she was an exchange program student at Cornell University and was a guest
student at Yale University respectively. She also worked at Intelligent Machines as an AI
Engineer Trainee. During her time as an undergraduate student, she was the first President
of AUW AI Society and Managing Editor of the campus newspaper The Echo AUW. She also
founded The Echo AUW extended group in Summer 2020.

Education

BS, Bioinformatics, Asian University for Women

Sadia Maisha

Junior Instructor

BA, Economics (Pathways and ACCESS)

Sadia Maisha is a Junior Instructor (Mathematics) for the pre-undergraduate program at Asian University for Women (AUW). Currently she is teaching both pathways and access academy students. Before joining AUW, she worked at Chittagong Grammar School as an 8th grade teacher. During her undergraduate years, she worked as peer tutor for 9 months at the Science & Math Center at AUW. She also actively volunteered as an Academic Mentor for Mathematics and also worked as teaching assistants for courses like econometrics, principles of microeconomics & basic economics at her university.

Sadia Maisha received her Bachelor in Arts in Economics (with double minor in Mathematics & Finance) in the year 2020 from AUW.

Hasan Mahfuj

Junior Instructor

MA ELT

CELTA

ESL and Foundation

Hasan Mahfuj joined AUW as an instructor of English as a Second Language in August 2022. He has set foot at AUW with an experience of 16 years of teaching English in IGCSE and ESL areas.

Hasan’s academic qualifications include an MA in ELT; a BA in English Language & Literature; and a CELTA.

Zumana Alam

Junior Instructor

Junior Instructor

BSc Electrical Engineering

Pre-UG Mathematics (Pathways)

Syeda Reiyan Azim

Junior Instructor

Mathematics (Pathways)

BA, Economics, Asian University for Women

Naima Halim Tushi

Junior Instructor

MA, Developmental Studies
(General Studies, Pathways)

Naima started teaching the Pre-UG Program at the Asian University for Women in January 2022 to help students be ready for the institution’s undergraduate degree programs. In addition to teaching Naima encourages females to become future leaders. Naima completed her undergraduate studies from Asian University for Women (AUW) with PPE (Politics, Philosophy & Economics) major and Development Studies minor on 2018. After that, she pursued her graduate studies at University of Malaya (UM) in Malaysia and graduated from the Department of Development Studies. Naima’s research interests lie on women and gender issues which have been published in renowned international journals. She has received a best paper award on an international conference.

Senior Thesis: Status of E-Learning at University Level in Bangladesh: Opportunities & Limitations

Journal Articles:

Shamsi, T., & Tushi, N. H. (2019). Empowering Rohingya Women For A Sustainable Refugee Camp. International Journal of Legal Developments and Allied Issues, 5(4).

Tushi, N. H., & Shamsi, T. (2020). Dowry Practices in Bangladesh and India. Journal of Legal Studies and Research, 6 (2).

Conference Acceptances:

Tushi, N. H., & Shamsi, T. (2020). International Social Sciences Research Colloquium. India

Mehzabeen Zaman

Junior Instructor

BS, Environmental Science
(General Studies, Pathways)

Mehzabeen joined as Junior Instructor for pathways in January 2022, a long-held aspiration of her started when pathways began its journey back in 2016. Besides teaching English curricular she is determined to be a great mentor for her students building confidence in their personal and professional lives. She hopes for her students to be higher achievers in their lives and serve as a strong woman in their community. Previously she served as a residential life coordinator at AUW where she acted as mentor, advisor and trusted friend to the residential students.

Majored in Environmental Science and minored in Development Studies from Asian University for Women.

Tahira Tazreen

Junior Instructor

MA,
(Pathways)

I am working as Junior Instructor of Pathways for Promise in AUW. Although it is my first-time teaching in Pathways, I have experience of working with them in different ways. After graduating from AUW in 2018, I joined Pathways for Promise as Program Officer and got the opportunity to work directly with the students, as well as with the instructors. Earlier, as a student of under graduation program, I worked as academic mentor for the students of Pathways, where I facilitated them in learning English (speaking, writing, and reading).

Mooniah Ramkissoon

Junior Instructor

BA, TESOL
Teacher Education Certificate
(General Studies)

General Studies Program English. English Instructor at AUW from 16/08/2022.
Previous Academic Appointments: Instructor of English Language and Academic Writing at
Princess Noura University, Saudi Arabia and Colleges of Higher Education , Sultanate of
Oman from 2010 t0 2020.
Teacher of GCSE Advanced Level English Literature in the UK, Cayman Islands and
Trinidad from 1991 to 2010.
Qualifications: BA Degree (Honors) Literature and Linguistics
TESOL Certificate Trinity
Teacher Education Certificate

Nusrat Huda

Junior Instructor

BA, Business/Computer Science
(General Studies)

Ms Nusrat Huda has received a Bachelor in Commerce with Computer Applications degree from Mahatma Gandhi University in Abu Dhabi, U.A.E and an MBA in Finance from Independent University Bangladesh. She has more than 8 years of teaching and soft skills training experience in Bangladesh. She is a certified soft skills trainer and organizational leader having conducted various training sessions for corporations and educational institutions in the country.
She joined AUW in March ’22 as an IT Instructor in the General Studies Program where she is responsible for conducting computer literacy classes for young female students belonging to challenging spheres of the society.

Research interests

• Communication and leadership development
• Technology and Communication
• Public speaking and stage phobia
• Women empowerment

Project involvements

A community leader in a voluntary non-profit leadership organization named Toastmasters International. Served in several leadership capacities including region head in 2020-21. Has had the opportunity to help develop leadership and communication skills in members, particularly women from across the Indian sub-continent.

Nusrat Tahsin

Junior Instructor

MA, ELT
(General Studies)

Nusrat Tahsin joined Asian University for Women (AUW) as a Junior Instructor for Pathways for Promise Program in August, 2022. She has been in teaching career since 2014. Before Joining AUW she was a secondary level English teacher who had been teaching English Language in O level for almost eight years. She completed the Cambridge International Examinations Professional Development course for O level Examination. Nusrat is an US Department of State Exchange Alumni who received training as an international educator in Fulbright Teaching Excellence and Achievement (TEA) Program in Montana State University, USA. As a part of TEA program, she also served as a guest teacher in Chief Joseph Middle School at Bozeman, Montana, USA. She is also involved in charitable Access program funded by US Department of State for teaching underprivileged students. Besides teaching she served as an Academic coordinator in English Access Microscholarship Program, Chattogram for one and half year. Her aim is to finding potential and empowering students from disadvantage class and Pathways program in AUW is the perfect area to fulfill her goal.

Academic Qualification

MA in English Language and Literature. International Islamic University Chittagong

B.A. (Hons) in English Language and Literature. International Islamic University Chittagong

Zoha Seddighi

Junior Instructor

I’m a certified teacher with an M.A. in English Literature from Macquarie University/ Australia. I have worked in Australia, Indonesia, Russia, Iran and “Afghanistan.” During my teaching career, I have taught at different universities, colleges and schools. As a humanitarian, I have cooperated with The UN, AIESEC, UNICEF, UNESCO and The Alliance for International Women’s Rights.

I joined The Asian University for women as an English Language Instructor in January 2022 and here I teach the General Studies Program to prepare students for the university’s undergraduate degree programs. Besides teaching, I empower girls to become future leaders.

Jannatul Bakya

Junior Instructor of Mathematics

I will be working as a junior instructor of mathematics in the pre-undergraduate program. I am required to teach a maximum of 15 credit-hours per trimester. On August 28, 2022, I started teaching at AUW. I had been working as a teaching assistant for three courses at my academic level.

Education:

B.Sc. Bioinformatics and Public Health, Asian University for Women, Chittagong, Bangladesh

Farishta Murad

Junior Instructor

With a formal teaching experience spanning from high school to university, including almost four years of working as a part-time teaching assistant in parallel to being a full-time student at Asian University for Women (AUW), I am thrilled to advance into representing the university as a Junior Instructor of Mathematics in Pre-UG. AUW has contributed significantly to my career accomplishments , from qualifying for a mid-senior level Banking position at HSBC as my first job to launching my own Graphic designing company called Grafiqe, and finally transitioning to a Math Faculty. I believe my calculative decision to gear into this occupation will wholly compensate my gratification level as I am driven by passion for numbers. Looking forward to accelerating the university’s ideals to build a more progressive society through education and beyond.

Teaching
Mathematics, Pre-UG.

Research
Research interests: Education and Housewives
Project involvements: I have conducted four independent research projects as a part of academics including my senior thesis – “The Worth of Housewives’ Time: A Micro-level Analysis in Chattogram, Bangladesh.”

Dilshad Jahan

Junior Instructor

I joined AUW last semester(Fall, 2022) as adjunct faculty. I taught 1-course(two sections) of Mathematics for the level Pre-Intermediate in General Studies program. From this semester I will be teaching level 1 & level 2 Mathematics. Before joining AUW as faculty I joined AUW back in 2018 as a student. I did my major in Economics with a double minor in Finance and Mathematics. I graduated from AUW on May 2022 with Cum Laude honors.

Research interests:
On development sector

Project involvements:
Socio-Economic Status of Palmyra Workers

Fariha Anjum

Junior Instructor

Fariha Anjum received B.Sc. in Computer Science and Engineering from the International Islamic University Chittagong, Bangladesh in 2022. She is serving as a Junior Instructor in Computer Science at Asian University for Women since January 2023.  During her final year, she has worked as a Health Data Analytics Intern in the eSystems Research and Development Lab of BUET for a period of three months.

Teaching

Information Technology, General Studies

Computer Literacy, Pre-UG

Research interests:

Data Science, Natural Language Processing, Image Processing, Health Data Analytics, Human Activity Recognition.

Peer-Reviewed International Conferences:

1. Anjum, S. Alam, E. H. Bahadur, A. K. M. Masum, and M. Z. Rahman, “Deep Learning for Depression Symptomatic Activity Recognition,” in 2022 International Conference on Innovations in Science, Engineering and Technology (ICISET), 2022, pp. 510-515: IEEE.

Journal Articles

“Recognition Exhibiting Symptoms Activity of Depression Employing Deep Learning” (under review by Hindawi)

On-Going Research

“Smartphone Sensors Based Heart-Rate Prediction and Pattern Recognition of Activity Intensity for Early Staging of Depression”

Publication Records Summary:

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=CYGJJ8oAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=sra

Piers Hayward

Junior Instructor

Piers has a science and business background, and qualified to work in the field of Australian migration law. Working with migrants inspired him to volunteer teaching literacy and numeracy to refugees on the Australian Migration Education Program. He loved the experience and qualified as an ESL teacher. For the last 5 years, Piers has been combining teaching ESL, Maths and Sciences to English second language learners, and joins AUW as a Junior Maths Instructor in the Pre-Undergraduate Program. Piers holds an MBA and CELTA.

Khadija Kubra

Junior Instructor

Khadija Kubra is a Junior Instructor of Computer Science, Pre-UG. She has joined AUW in January 2023. She is teaching Computer literacy. She has completed her Bachelors of Science and Masters from American University-Bangladesh. She was an intern teaching assistant at AIUB. Her research interests include machine learning, deep learning, computer vision, Pattern Recognition, object detection & Classification. She is extremely motivated to have a positive influence on the fields of teaching, research, and education. She is constantly driven by a desire to increase the interests of young students in learning and study.

Teaching

Computer Literacy

Research Interest

• Machine Learning
• Deep Learning
• Computer Vision
• Pattern Recognition
• Object Detection & Classification

Project involvements

• DeepFBAs: Fetal Brain Abnormalities Detection from MRI Images using CNN with Stacking Strategy
• Fisher Motion descriptor for LSTM-based gait analysis using SVM Classification.
• Robust Walking Pattern Recognition Using Silhouette and Pose Estimation

Tasnuva Khan Tanisha

Junior Instructor

Tasnuva Khan Tanisha has joined Asian University for Women (AUW) as a Junior Instructor of English in January, 2023. She will be teaching Level 1 ESL and Level 3 Reading Across the Discipline in Pre-Undergraduate Programs. Before joining AUW, she worked at American School Chittagong for 4 months.

Tasnuva Khan Tanisha has received her Bachelor in Arts in English Language and Literature from Premier University, Chittagong in the year 2021. Currently, she is pursuing her Master of Arts in English Language Teaching (ELT) from Premier University.

Teaching

Level-1 (Reading and Writing)

Level-1 (Listening and Speaking)

Level-3 (Reading Across the Discipline)

Research interests:

• Learning Disability
• Feminism in Ancient Literature

Lutfun Nahar Anika

Junior Instructor

I am currently serving as the Junior Instructor of Mathematics at the AUW. I am teaching quantitative reasoning at level 2 and precalculus at level 3. I’ve joined AUW for the spring session of 2023. I also served as a TA in intermediate macroeconomics, principles of microeconomics, and introduction to finance during my university career. I have my own startup, QEC, which is an EdTech platform basically to prepare sixth grade students for the most competitive “Cadet College Admission Test.” The middle school students are also cared for academically both online and offline. Additionally, I created projects for K–12 kids and the Bangladesh Civil Service courses while working as the project-based instructor at the 10-minute school, Bangladesh’s largest EdTech platform.

Farhana Rubayet

Junior Instructor

Farhana Rubayet graduated from AUW in 2022 with a major in Economics and minors in Development Studies and Finance. With great teaching aspirations, she recently joined AUW as a Junior Instructor in January 2023. She will be responsible for teaching Pre-Undergraduate students Quantitative Reasoning (level 200) and Precalculus (level 300). Prior to joining AUW as a Faculty member, Farhana Rubayet worked as a Teaching Assistant at AUW for the Introduction to Econometrics and Reading Across the Disciplines courses. She performed as a Case Analyst for a CARITAS Bangladesh project promoting social inclusion based on drug-addicted people and slum dwellers. She also assisted one of the two lead researchers in a World Bank project involving the Fisheries Transparency Initiative (FiTI) and evaluated the online transparency of fisheries management information in Bangladesh.

Nawar Fairooz

Junior Instructor

Nawar is a teacher and writer, currently working as a Junior Instructor in the ESL Program. She graduated from Independent University, Bangladesh, with a major in Contemporary English Literature. She worked as a Junior Lecturer (Adjunct) at North South University before coming to AUW.

Nayma Afreen

Junior Instructor

Nayma Afreen joined AUW as a junior instructor of English in January 2023. She embarked on teaching profession in 2017. Prior to joining AUW she served three universities. Her academic background includes concentration on English Language Teaching (ELT) both in graduation and post-graduation. Her research interests revolve around ELT and social, psychological and technological effects on language learning.

Sakib Mohammad Shahrain

Junior Instructor

Sakib Mohammad Shahrain joined AUW on January 2023 with a Post Graduate degree in English Language Teaching and an Undergraduate degree in English Language and Literature. He completed his schooling with a British Curriculum background and is active in extracurricular activities like MUN, Public Speaking, and Debating.

He has 13 months of prior teaching experience in a British Curriculum School and two months of experience in the corporate sector. His research interests are critical pedagogy, assessment validity and impacts, factors that affect learning styles and practices, and four skills.

Currently, he is taking ESL level 1 “Reading and Writing” and “Speaking and Listening” courses and the “Reading Across the Disciplines” level 1 course at the Foundation level. With his dissertation major focusing on critical pedagogy, Sakib aims to empower the students through active involvement in classroom activities, decisions on teaching styles and home tasks, and much more. He aspires to ensure that the students can implement their learnings in the classroom in the outside world to the fullest extent and be able to think critically in all sorts of situations.

Umma Salma

Junior Instructor

Ms. Salma is a TESOL graduate from North South University, Dhaka and joined Asian University for Women as a Junior Instructor.

Teaching

Currently teaching Presentation Skill for the level 3 students along with 2 courses on ESL for the level 2.

Research

Salma is deeply interested in the Critical Pedagogical field that includes mainstreaming morality and ethics education at every level. Also, diasporic discourse, cultural imperialism, ethnocentrism etc. are some of the areas that she is mostly invested in.

Sara Kohlberg

Senior Teaching Fellow

Sara earned her BS from New York University in Global Public Health and Food Studies, and her MPH from Columbia University in Population and Family Health and Humanitarian Assistance. Her research interests include Maternal, Child, and Infant Health and Nutrition, Reproductive Health, and Sustainable Food Systems.

Sanju Banerjee

Teaching Fellow

Sanju is a recent graduate from the University of Oxford, where she read History and Spanish. Her academic interests consist of South Asian women’s history as well as hispanic literature. Having previously taught English to foreign speakers while living in Spain, she is eager to use her experience to contribute towards the empowerment of other young women.

Teaching:
Pre-undergraduate English: ESL Level 2 and Foundation Course Level 1

Rhya Evans

Teaching Fellow

Rhya Evans is a recent graduate of Georgetown University where she completed a BS in Global Health with a minor in Science, Technology, and International Affairs. She joins AUW this year as a teaching fellow, passionate about improving health equity around the world.  

Teaching

She will be working to support instructors and students in various public health courses including Environmental Health, Introduction to Public Health, Epidemiology, and Senior Seminars.

Research interests
Her interests include global maternal, infant and reproductive health, their intersection with the environment and climate change, and the ethics of health and development programs.

Journal Articles

Religion, Menstruation, and Refugee Realities: Insights from Rohingya Girls and Women

(Pulitzer Center, 2022)

Cyrus Naji

Teaching Fellow

Cyrus studied Classics at Oxford University. During his undergraduate degree, he combined linguistic study with a focus on ancient history and literature. He has worked in the art and publishing sectors, and is passionate about the empowering effects of education.

Sadia Chowdhury

Teaching Fellow

Ms. Sadia has recently joined AUW, as a teaching fellow for the Social Sciences Program. Prior to joining AUW, she worked as Research Associate at the BRAC Institute of Governance and Development (BIGD), BRAC University. There she was involved with quantitative and qualitative research studies. She graduated summa cum laude from AUW in 2019. She was also granted a tuition fee waiver scholarship throughout the four undergraduate years due to her excellence in academic performance. Following her passion for theoretical and empirical economics, she completed her masters in economics with distinction from the University of Sussex. She received the University of Sussex Business School International Masters Award, Sussex Alumni scholarship, and Asian University for Women Sussex Masters Scholarship. Sadia has worked in different multinational organizations such as Marriott International, Chittagong Stock Exchange, and Yunus Centre. She was also involved in various community service organizations and research projects that work to solve some pressing social issues.

Research interests
Her research focuses on the analysis of household behavior, with an emphasis on investment in education and health, poverty, inequality, as well as labor force supply.
Projects Involvements
Assisting and collaborating closely with faculty team members working on the ‘Evaluation Study of World Bank Projects’

Publication

Kamal Raihana Sayeeda and Chowdhury Sadia (2022). Formalization of F-commerce in Bangladesh: Implications for Female-owned SMEs. BRAC Institute of Governance and Development. https://bigd.bracu.ac.bd/formalization-of-f-commerce-in-bangladesh-implications-for-female-owned-smes/

Nishat Tasnim Akhi

Chief Teaching Fellow and Graduate Program Coordinator

Nishat has earned her bachelor degree from AUW, majoring in Economics in the year of 2019. She has her MA in Economic Policy in Global Markets from Central European University based in both Budapest and Vienna. Her subject of study interest is in the incentivized education system, a sub section of economics of education.  She is currently working as a Chief Teaching Fellow & Program Coordinator for the Graduate Program in Education at AUW.

Ferowza Swapnil

Teaching Fellow

Ferowza completed her bachelor’s degree from AUW in 2019, majoring in Economics and minoring in Mathematics. She then pursued her MA in Economic Policy in Global Markets from Central European University in Vienna, Austria. During her Masters, she has developed an interest in the field of Economics of Education, as well as Education Policy designs and implementation. Currently she is working as one of the Teaching Fellows  for the Graduate Program in Education  at AUW.

Israt Jahan Oeeshi

Teaching Fellow

Israt recently completed her Master’s degree in Economic Policy in Global Markets from Central European University in Vienna, Austria, with a focus on global education policy and development. Israt graduated from Asian University for Women in 2019 with a Bachelor in Economics and a minor in Development Studies. As an outspoken supporter of Human Rights, Economic and Social Equality, Israt enrolled in a fully funded exchange certificate programme at the Levy Economics Institute of Bard College, USA, on the topic of “Inequality Analysis.” Israt’s research interests include post-covid inequalities across developed and developing countries, the comparative analysis of social costs and benefits of higher education, future of the investments in EdTech and STEM programs. Israt aspires to make a difference in the unequal society by working on the development of sustainable policy alternatives supported by evidence-based solutions, solid research and green approaches. Israt is an avid traveler who enjoys learning about history, diverse culture, traditions, and cuisines. Israt enjoys photography and admires creativity!

Muzahida Tasbiha

Teaching Fellow

Muzahida graduated from Asian University for Women (AUW) in 2018 with a BA major in Politics, Philosophy, Economics (PPE) and minor in Development Studies. She has worked at BRAC University, Economics and Social Science department as a Teaching Assistant. Later she joined the ‘Teach for Bangladesh’ fellowship program where she worked with underprivileged students and community to join the movement of ensuring quality education for all. She has received fully funded scholarship as a part of her fellowship to pursue MEd. in ‘Educational Leadership and School Improvement’ from BRAC University. Her research interest lies in Educational leadership, Gender role in education, Education for marginalized community and TESOL. Currently she is working as a Teaching Fellow for the Graduate Program in Education at AUW.

Nusaiba Binte Zakaria

Teaching Fellow

Nusaiba holds a BA in Economics from AUW and an MSc in Development Economics from the University of Sussex. Her research interests are in development microeconomics, particularly in questions centered around gender. She returned to AUW as a Teaching Fellow, led by her interest to develop a more nuanced understanding of the barriers faced by women, especially by those from historically disadvantaged backgrounds.

Zuhairia Ibnat

Teaching Fellow

Zuhairia is a graduate of AUW Batch of 2020 with a double major in Environmental Science and Bioinformatics. Her undergraduate degree was followed by a Masters of Science in Quantitative and Computational Biology from the University of Trento in Trento, Italy. She has worked on research projects related to single-cell sequencing and data analysis during her masters. Her research interests include studying omics data from a holistic point of view.

Apart from her academics, Zuhairia is an enthusiast of organizing, traveling and crafting.  Currently, she is working as the Teaching Fellow for the Graduate Program in Education at AUW.