IOWC Research Associate: Rashed Chowdhury

Rashed Chowdhury is completing his PhD in history at McGill, with a focus on the socio-political context of the Hijaz Railway, built by the Ottoman Empire in the early 20th century. Rashed’s broader interests include the relationship between Islam and the state in the Middle East and beyond, the socio-political ramifications of modernisation in the Muslim world, as well as Muslim minorities in Europe. Rashed holds a BA (Hons.) in international relations from Grinnell College (Iowa) and an MA in Islamic studies from McGill.

Rashed worked as a Junior Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, DC from 2003 to 2004, conducting research on Eastern European and American political and economic affairs. He has won a number of awards for academic excellence, most recently a doctoral bursary from the Fonds québecois de recherhe sur la société et la culture (2008-2011).

Rashed is a regular contributor to ARCHE, a leading Belarusian magazine of public affairs and historical analysis. Rashed’s articles have covered political developments in the Middle East, South Asia, the US and Belarus, and have led to him being awarded ARCHE’s Honest Word Prize in 2009.

Rashed Chowdhury’s native languages are Russian, Bengali and Belarusian. His working languages include French, Turkish, Arabic, Polish and Ukrainian.

• 2010 "Muslim Opposition to the War in Afghanistan: The Case(s) of Bangladesh and Turkey," in Gary Badcock and Darren Marks (eds.), War, Human Dignity and Nation Building: Theological Perspectives on Canada's Role in Afghanistan (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing,2010), 91-112.

• 2009 "Organization of the Islamic Conference," in David P. Forsythe (ed.), Encyclopedia of Human Rights (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009).

• 2011 "'Facebook-am' pa dyktatury, albo Narodauladzdze u epokhu satsyialnykh setak” (Facebook vs. Dictatorship, or Democracy in the Era of Social Networks), ARCHE 100-101: 238-250.
• 2009 "Palitychnae pole feadalnykh papulistau" (The Political Field of Feudal Populists), ARCHE 80: 82-87.
• 2009 "Budzma belarustsami" (Let us Be Belarusians), ARCHE 80: 5-10.
• 2009 “Novaia era amerykanskaha hramadztva" (A New Era in American Society), ARCHE 76-77: 23-32.
• 2008 "Raspliushchyts vochy na ziamliu abiatsanuyu" (Opening One’s Eyes to the Promised Land), ARCHE 75: 76-95.
• 2008 "Levy papulist, iakoha ranei ne bylo" (An Unprecedented Left-Wing Populist), ARCHE 69: 66-75.
• 2008 "Caught in the Crossfire”, Eurozine, 23 May.
• 2008 "Barack Obama i novaia amerykanskaia mara" (Barack Obama and the New American Dream), ARCHE 66: 20-28.
• 2008 "Pra svaikh dy chuzhykh”" (Of Us and Them), ARCHE (Minsk) 64-65: 5-11.
• 2008 “Europe: Defining a Continent", Paragon (Grinnell, Iowa) 1.