Expertise Summary

Dr. Syed Kazim Ali Kazmi is a postdoc researcher in Postcolonial Studies at the Department of Anglophone Studies whose Ph.D. project was on Pakistani Novels in English (2023). As a member of the interdisciplinary research group on "Ambiguity and Distinction: Historical and Cultural Dynamics" he has been working with Prof. Plummer on subprojects "Unveiling Orientalism: Ambiguity in British Discourse on Travel across the Long Eighteenth Century" (2019-2022) and "Orientalism in Colonial Australia: A Transimperial Perspective, 1770-1901" (since 2023). 

Having previously taught English language and literature at several institutions in Pakistan, Dr. Kazmi also has two Masters in English language and Literature from the International Islamic University in Islamabad, and the Hazara University in Mansehra, Pakistan. He has researched the stories of individuals who converted to Islam in the northern region of Chitral, Pakistan. Having worked on the ambiguity of hijras, eunuchs and castrati during the first period of the interdisciplinary research group "Ambiguity and Distinction: Historical and Cultural Dynamics", he is currently researching the lives of cameleers in c19 Australia as part of Prof. Plummer's project on "Orientalism in Colonial Australia" during the second funding period. In addition to his Ph.D. thesis on Pakistani literature in English, Dr. Kazmi has published on converts to Islam and on hijras, and has taught courses on Pakistani literature and on Ambiguity in Anglophone Literature and Culture at the University of Duisburg-Essen. His further research interests include postcolonial literatures, globalization, and diaspora narratives. 

Plummer, Patricia and Syed Kazim Ali Kazmi. "'Transgendered, castrated, effeminate'? Gender and Ambiguity in Cross-Cultural Perspective." Journal Netzwerk Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung in NRW 49 (2021): 73-80. Link

Kazmi, S. K. A. (2016). From Spirits to God: Stories of the Kalash Converts from Before and After their Conversion. Narrative Works, 6(2). Retrieved from https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/NW/article/view/25801.

Kazmi, S. K. A.  “A Donkey in a Horse Race.” Contemporary Literary Review India 4.1 (Aug. 2017): 109-17. https://literaryjournal.in/index.php/clri/article/view/336.

---. “The Story”. Contemporary Literary Review India 3.2  (Aug. 2016): 26-28. https://literaryjournal.in/index.php/clri/article/view/257.

---. “Insomnia.” Contemporary Literary Review India 3.1 (Feb. 2016): 60-63. https://literaryjournal.in/index.php/clri/article/view/201.

Patricia Plummer and Syed Kazim Ali Kazmi: "Ambiguity and Gender in Anglophone Literature and Culture" (Seminar, WS 2023/24)
Patricia Plummer and Syed Kazim Ali Kazmi: "Tariq Ali: Islam, Multiculturalism and Secularism" (Seminar, WS 2020/21)