Abstract
This talk will draw on reflections from interdisciplinary and multi method research in Pakistan across two projects: the Education, Justice, and Memory Network which uses a values framework to find ways to teach and learn about violent pasts while working toward more just futures, and an oral history project of the life histories of women public servants. I draw on outputs from these projects (story books, oral history narratives, and short films) to discuss the value of bringing different voices and partnerships, methods and practices to bear on studying South Asian communities, their past and present, and hopes for the future. Emphasizing local voices and partnerships in the production and dissemination of knowledge, I suggest that we establish an anti-colonial ethos rooted in care and generosity in our teaching and research to develop fully nuanced understandings of contexts, experiences, and motivations of those marginalized from mainstream knowledge production.

Bio
Sameen A. Mohsin Ali is an assistant professor of international development at the University of Birmingham, in the International Development Department (IDD). She was previously assistant professor of political science at the Mushtaq Gurmani School of Humanities and Social Sciences (MGSHSS) at the Lahore University of Management Sciences, Pakistan. Her work has been published in World Development, Commonwealth and Comparative Politics, and The Oral History Review and she is co-editor of the textbook, The Politics of Development, published by SAGE UK.