Omer Aijazi

Lecturer (Assistant Professor), Humanitarian and Conflict Response Institute, University of Manchester

Omer Aijazi is a transdisciplinary scholar of disaster and conflict, interested in how people imagine and claim their worlds in the wake of colonial rule and environmental ruin while in the shadows of empire. Questioning disciplinary norms within disaster studies and the carceral logics of South Asia, he explores these ideas in the mountain borderlands of the disputed territory of Kashmir and its continuity with Northern Pakistan. Omer works alongside international development, humanitarian, and human rights organizations, linking research with policy, practice, and activism.

Omer is the author of "Atmospheric Violence: Disaster and Repair in Kashmir" (contemporary ethnography series at the University of Pennsylvania Press, 2024)

Experience

2023–present

Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Disasters and Climate Crisis, University of Manchester
2020–2023

Visiting Assistant Professor of Anthropology, University of Victoria
2022–2023

Technical Editor, Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC)
2018–2021

Postdoctoral Research Fellow (Anthropology and Religion), University of Toronto
2020–2021

Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Global Challenges, Brunel University London
2018–2020

Research Consultant, United Nations ESCAP

Education

University of Toronto, BBA (Honours) in Strategic Management
University of British Columbia, MA in Community-Engaged Disaster Response
University of British Columbia, Ph.D in Critical Disaster Studies