Dr Sobia Ahmad Kaker
-
Email
s.kaker@essex.ac.uk -
Telephone
+44 (0) 1206 872178
-
Location
5A.340, Colchester Campus
-
Academic support hours
1:00-2:00pm Mondays 2:00-3:00pm Tuesdays
Profile
Biography
I am an interdisciplinary urban studies scholar, working on the governance of everyday insecurity and uncertainty in rapidly urbanising post-colonial contexts. My PhD titled 'Enclaves as process: space, security and violence in Karachi, Pakistan' (2015) ethnographically studied social and spatial practices of governing everyday insecurity in a polarised Pakistani megacity. My ongoing research on insecurity and urban life in Pakistan has contributed to critical debates in urban sociology, criminology, and security studies. In the past 7 years, aspects of this research have been published in leading journals (Public Culture, South Asian History and Culture, Security Dialogue, The Geographical Journal), respected design publications (Harvard Design Magazine), impactful working papers and reports (Urban Uncertainty, LSE; Cities in Fragile States, DESTIN), book chapters (Columbia University Press, Routledge), Podcasts (Urban Political Podcast at Humboldt University, and Between the Lines at IDS Sussex), agenda-setting research seminars (IDS Sussex, Cambridge university) and blogs (Society and Space Forum). I am strongly committed to promoting and enabling social justice through academic research. To this end, I have recently completed a REC-GCRF funded action-research project titled ‘Uncertainty & Insecurity of Tenure: Developing Infrastructures of Care and Resistance in Islamabad, Pakistan’ (£34,172). This action-research project responded to the violent state-led eviction of working-class communities living in katchi abadis (irregular settlements) in Islamabad, the heavily-securitised Pakistani capital. It built and strengthened networks between marginal urban residents, social activists, and wider urban communities, while developing a counter narrative to state-led discourses of irregular settlement dwellers and their places of residence as ‘illegal’ and/or 'criminal'.
Qualifications
-
PhD Newcastle University, (2015)
Appointments
University of Essex
-
Lecturer, Department of Sociology, University of Essex (1/9/2021 - present)
Research and professional activities
Research interests
Research Interests
Teaching and supervision
Current teaching responsibilities
-
Policing, Punishment and Society (SC205)
-
Globalisation and Crime (SC304)
-
Crime, Control, and the City (SC102)
Current supervision
Publications
Journal articles (5)
Ahmad Kaker, S., Governing ‘ordinary’ uncertainty: circulating information and everyday insecurity in Karachi. Security Dialogue
Akoth, SO., Anwar, N., Bathla, N., Cavalcanti, M., El‐Husseiny, M., Güney, KM., Irawaty, DT., Kaker, SA., Kihato, CW., Lawanson, T., Saguin, KK. and Simone, A., (2024). The atmospheres of massiveness: The politics and times of the maybe in Southern megaregions. The Geographical Journal. 190 (1)
Kaker, SA. and Anwar, NH., (2023). From one flooding crisis to the next: Negotiating ‘the maybe’ in unequal Karachi. Geographical Journal. 190 (1)
Zeiderman, A., Kaker, SA., Silver, J. and Wood, A., (2015). Uncertainty and Urban Life. Public Culture. 27 (2), 281-304
Kaker, SA., (2014). Enclaves, insecurity and violence in Karachi. South Asian History and Culture. 5 (1), 93-107
Book chapters (3)
Ahmad Kaker, S., (2024). How to do social research with... Infrastructure. In: How To Do Social Research With.... Editors: Coleman, R., Jungnickel, K. and Puwar, N., . Goldsmiths Press. 151- 162. 1913380424. 9781913380427
Kaker, S., Evans, J., Cugurullo, F., Cook, M. and Petrova, S., (2020). Expanding cities: Living, planning and governing uncertainty. In: The Politics of Uncertainty Challenges of Transformation. Editors: Scoones, I. and Sterling, A., . Routledge. 85- 98. 9781003023845
Kaker, SA., (2020). Responding to, or Perpetuating, Urban Insecurity? Enclave-Making in Karachi. In: Cities at War Global Insecurity and Urban Resistance. Editors: Kaldor, M. and Sassen, S., . Colombia University Press. 133- 159. 9780231185394
Reports and Papers (4)
Ahmad Kaker, S., Turi, S-H. and Rashid, A., (2021). Right to Housing: A Toolkit for Action
Ahmad Kaker, S., Zeiderman, A., Silver, J., Wood, A. and Ramakrishnan, K., (2017). Urban Uncertainty: governing cities in turbulent times
Ahmad Kaker, S., Budhani, AA., Gazdar, H. and Bux Mallah, H., (2010). The Open City: Social Networks and Violence in Karachi
Ahmad Kaker, S., Gazdar, H. and Khan, I., (2010). Buffer Zone, Colonial Enclave or Urban Hub? Quetta: Between four regions and two wars.
Media (1)
Sterling, A. and Kaker, S., Podcast: Andy Sterling (STEPS) in conversation with Sobia Kaker on COVID-19, Uncertainty and development (Sussex Development Lectures 2020/2021). Video
Contact
Academic support hours:
1:00-2:00pm Mondays 2:00-3:00pm Tuesdays
