Nusrat Sabina Chowdhury
Biographic Data
| ID | 116565 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Nusrat Sabina Chowdhury |
| GIVEN NAMES | Nusrat Sabina |
| FAMILY NAME | Chowdhury |
| SIGNATURE | CHOWDHURY N S |
| AFFILIATIONS | Amherst College |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 8 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 19 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 8 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2013 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
A Trial for Recognition
Mobs and Megaprojects
Drawing on the case study of a river bridge in Bangladesh, this article shows how and why linguistic circulation is indispensable to infrastructural populism that relies primarily on spectacular visibility. The focus here is the Padma Bridge, named after the river it spans, which was inaugurated by Sheikh Hasina amid much fanfare in 2022. Its emergence as, what I call, “populist infrastructure” dates back more than a decade. After the World Bank …
The Return of Politics in Bangladesh
In July 2024, Bangladesh witnessed a historic uprising that led to the ouster of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina after 15 years of increasingly authoritarian rule. What began as student protests against discriminatory government job quotas transformed into a nationwide movement demanding regime change. The protests, marked by unprecedented violence and state repression, resulted in nearly a thousand deaths. The student coalition "Students Against Di…
Bangladesh in 2022 and 2023
Following the semicentennial celebrations and a global pandemic, Bangladesh seemed well on track to achieve the promises of furthering both democracy and development. But while development was visible in the completion of spectacular infrastructural projects, democracy continued to suffer, as the government plans to host the 12th parliamentary elections without the participation of the main opposition party. The war in Ukraine and a depleting for…
On the Importance of Throwing Things
Aggrieved crowds throw objects in protest that dole out insult and injury in equal measure. Despite the motley things in a crowd's arsenal, there is a pattern to pelting and the range of causes for which rocks, tomatoes, eggs, pies, milkshakes, shoes, and water bottles are thrown with regularity. Pelting overcomes distance by touching the body of a powerful enemy by proxy. In hitting the sublime body with "matters out of place," the crowd relocat…
Mines and signs
In Bangladesh in 2007-8, speculation about an energy catastrophe thrived alongside utopic visions of democracy. Two events consolidated the despair and hope for collective national futures: a movement against possible coal mines in Phulbari in the northwest and a nationwide political emergency. They are the focus of this essay. By bringing resource crisis and political crisis together, I argue, at one level, that resource and democracy have becom…
Picture-Thinking
This article offers insights into the classic impasse of citizenship and sovereignty in post-colonial South Asia. It focuses on two public texts, a national identification card and a censored photograph, both generated during a state of emergency in Bangladesh, from 2007-2008. By "impasse," I point to the ideological loop that paternalistic authority resorts to in the name of governance, where a repressive, corrupt, and/or un-democratic governmen…
Women suicide bombers
V.G. Julie Rajan, New York, Routledge, 2012, 384 pp, US$46.45 (paperback), ISBN 978-0-4155-3246-4 It is probably safe to say that V.G. Julie Rajan's Women Suicide Bombers: Narratives of Violence is
Mines and signs
In Bangladesh in 2007-8, speculation about an energy catastrophe thrived alongside utopic visions of democracy. Two events consolidated the despair and hope for collective national futures: a movement against possible coal mines in Phulbari in the northwest and a nationwide political emergency. They are the focus of this essay. By bringing resource crisis and political crisis together, I argue, at one level, that resource and democracy have becom…
Picture-Thinking
This article offers insights into the classic impasse of citizenship and sovereignty in post-colonial South Asia. It focuses on two public texts, a national identification card and a censored photograph, both generated during a state of emergency in Bangladesh, from 2007-2008. By "impasse," I point to the ideological loop that paternalistic authority resorts to in the name of governance, where a repressive, corrupt, and/or un-democratic governmen…
The Return of Politics in Bangladesh
In July 2024, Bangladesh witnessed a historic uprising that led to the ouster of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina after 15 years of increasingly authoritarian rule. What began as student protests against discriminatory government job quotas transformed into a nationwide movement demanding regime change. The protests, marked by unprecedented violence and state repression, resulted in nearly a thousand deaths. The student coalition "Students Against Di…
Women suicide bombers
V.G. Julie Rajan, New York, Routledge, 2012, 384 pp, US$46.45 (paperback), ISBN 978-0-4155-3246-4 It is probably safe to say that V.G. Julie Rajan's Women Suicide Bombers: Narratives of Violence is
Women suicide bombers
V.G. Julie Rajan, New York, Routledge, 2012, 384 pp, US$46.45 (paperback), ISBN 978-0-4155-3246-4 It is probably safe to say that V.G. Julie Rajan's Women Suicide Bombers: Narratives of Violence is
Picture-Thinking
This article offers insights into the classic impasse of citizenship and sovereignty in post-colonial South Asia. It focuses on two public texts, a national identification card and a censored photograph, both generated during a state of emergency in Bangladesh, from 2007-2008. By "impasse," I point to the ideological loop that paternalistic authority resorts to in the name of governance, where a repressive, corrupt, and/or un-democratic governmen…
Mines and signs
In Bangladesh in 2007-8, speculation about an energy catastrophe thrived alongside utopic visions of democracy. Two events consolidated the despair and hope for collective national futures: a movement against possible coal mines in Phulbari in the northwest and a nationwide political emergency. They are the focus of this essay. By bringing resource crisis and political crisis together, I argue, at one level, that resource and democracy have becom…
On the Importance of Throwing Things
Aggrieved crowds throw objects in protest that dole out insult and injury in equal measure. Despite the motley things in a crowd's arsenal, there is a pattern to pelting and the range of causes for which rocks, tomatoes, eggs, pies, milkshakes, shoes, and water bottles are thrown with regularity. Pelting overcomes distance by touching the body of a powerful enemy by proxy. In hitting the sublime body with "matters out of place," the crowd relocat…
Bangladesh in 2022 and 2023
Following the semicentennial celebrations and a global pandemic, Bangladesh seemed well on track to achieve the promises of furthering both democracy and development. But while development was visible in the completion of spectacular infrastructural projects, democracy continued to suffer, as the government plans to host the 12th parliamentary elections without the participation of the main opposition party. The war in Ukraine and a depleting for…
The Return of Politics in Bangladesh
In July 2024, Bangladesh witnessed a historic uprising that led to the ouster of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina after 15 years of increasingly authoritarian rule. What began as student protests against discriminatory government job quotas transformed into a nationwide movement demanding regime change. The protests, marked by unprecedented violence and state repression, resulted in nearly a thousand deaths. The student coalition "Students Against Di…
A Trial for Recognition
Mobs and Megaprojects
Drawing on the case study of a river bridge in Bangladesh, this article shows how and why linguistic circulation is indispensable to infrastructural populism that relies primarily on spectacular visibility. The focus here is the Padma Bridge, named after the river it spans, which was inaugurated by Sheikh Hasina amid much fanfare in 2022. Its emergence as, what I call, “populist infrastructure” dates back more than a decade. After the World Bank …
Politics (6 works) · Political science (5 works) · Bangladesh Politics, Society, and Development (4 works) · Law (4 works) · Political economy (4 works) · Economics (3 works) · Law (3 works) · Sociology (3 works) · Art (2 works) · Computer Science (2 works)