Pembroke Center

Vazira Zamindar

Associate Professor of History

Biography

Vazira Fazila-Yacoobali Zamindar is a twentieth century historian with an interest in decolonization, displacement, war, non-violence, the visual archive and contemporary art. Her book, “The Long Partition and the Making of Modern South Asia: Refugees, Boundaries, Histories” combines oral histories with archival research to examine the significance of refugees to nation-state formation in the devastating aftermath of 1947. The book has inspired performances including dance performances, a film, and an animation project. Her second book, “The Ruin Archive: Art and War at the Ends of Empire,” takes on archaeology, art history, photography, film and war on the northwest frontier of British India, on the borderlands with Afghanistan. In 2020-21, Dr. Zamindar was visiting research fellow at the Collaborative Research Center for Affective Societies, Freie Universität Berlin, and the Vasl Artists Association in Karachi Pakistan, and she directed the South Asian Studies Program at the Watson Institute from 2012-2016. Read more about Dr. Zamindar’s scholarship, creative collaborations, and service work here.