PhD student Hassan Asif, who has just been named a Chancellor Jackman Graduate Fellow in the Humanities, plans to use his fellowship to advance his dissertation, which explores the intersection of digital media, remix culture and Islamic devotional music in Pakistan.
His project examines the digital remixing of na’at, which are hymns in praise of Prophet Muhammad. This remixing blends traditional devotional expressions with modern digital technologies to challenge and redefine religious and cultural narratives.
Asif’s research not only contributes to the understanding of Muslim digital media cultures but also intersects with the fellowship’s annual theme of undergrounds/underworlds, given its emphasis on underground Islamic media phenomena.
“I look forward to collaborating with scholars from various disciplines, generating potential cross-pollination of ideas, and contributing to a broader comprehension of digital media’s role in shaping contemporary religious and cultural environments,” says Asif, who has done fieldwork in Lahore and Karachi and whose academic background includes museums and gallery practice, communications studies and cultural anthropology. “This fellowship is pivotal to my research project, providing invaluable funding, resources and a supportive intellectual community.”
Featured News
Jazz Journeys with Alan Stanbridge
For the vast majority of working jazz musicians, the metaphor of the journey has profoundly real implications. It is perhaps unsurprising then, writes Professor Alan Stanbridge in Jazzforschung/Jazz Research, that the theme of travelling has featured extensively in the history and discourses of jazz, in ways that often blur or conflate the real, the fictional and the metaphorical. These […]
Alum Albert Tai’s entrepreneurial journey
Alumnus Albert Tai’s Hypercare startup was featured in the Globe and Mail this week as one of four U of T startups that are solving global challenges with innovative solutions. Tai, who graduated from the Faculty of Information in 2017, launched Hypercare that same year, together with Dr. Joseph Choi, an emergency physician and assistant […]
MMST students, alumna contribute to Governor General’s Award-winning exhibit
Students from the Museum Studies capstone course (2022/23) played a key role in creating an exhibit that has just been named winner of the Governor General’s History Award for Excellence in Community Programming. Grace Kovacs, Hanjia Li, Abera Rajendran and Marie Song helped put together “Standing in the Doorway: Lived Histories and Experiences of the Chinese Community”. The exhibit drew on new oral histories, loaned […]
Faculty of Information at ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work
Faculty of Information professors and students will have a strong presence at the 27th ACM SIGCHI Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work & Social Computing (CSCW) taking place in San José, Costa Rica next week (November 9-13). CSCW is the premier venue for research in the design and use of technologies that affect groups, organizations, communities, and […]