PH.D. CANDIDATE (ABD)
Yale University
Program in the History of Science and Medicine, Department of History
Dissertation: “The Making of the Modern Reef: Science, Extraction, and the Material Afterlives of Decolonization”
Advisors: Sunil Amrith & Deborah Coen
Areas: environmental history, US history, Atlantic & Indian Oceans, global history, intellectual history, history of science, STS
2019 - Present
PH.D.
University of Chicago
Committee on Development, Regeneration & Stem Cell Biology
Dissertation: “The roles of the Planar Cell Polarity (PCP) Molecules Prickle1a and Prickle1b in Zebrafish
Neural Crest.”
Advisor: Victoria Prince
2012 - 2018
M.A. Joint Degree
University of Chicago
Committee on Conceptual & Historical Studies of Science
Thesis: “Scale in the Evolutionary History of the Great Barrier Reef”
Advisor: Fredrik Albritton Jonsson
2016 - 2018
B.S.
Lahore University of Management Sciences
Department of Biology, Syed Babar Ali School of Science and Engineering
Graduation with Distinction, Dean’s Honor Roll
2008 - 2012
2020
Manuel Rocha, Noor Singh, Kamil Ahsan, Anastasia Beiriger, Victoria Prince, “Neural Crest development: insights from the zebrafish.”
Developmental Dynamics, Vol. 249
2019
Kamil Ahsan, Noor Singh, Christina Huang, Manuel Rocha, Victoria Prince, “Prickle1 Regulates both EMT and Migration of Zebrafish Cranial Neural Crest”
Developmental Biology, Vol. 448
2018
Kristin Gallik, Randall Treffy, Lynne Nacke, Kamil Ahsan, Manuel Rocha, Abigail Green-Saxena, Ankur Saxena, “Neural Crest and Cancer: Divergent Travelers on Similar Paths”
Mechanisms of Development, Vol. 148
2011
Kamil Ahsan, “The Caveats of Transitional Justice: The Validity and Efficacy of Truth & Reconciliation Commissions from a Human Rights Perspective”
Pakistan Journal of International Law, Vol. 1(2):44–57
in revision, HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY OF THE LIFE SCIENCES
in preparation
Kamil Ahsan, “On Equal Terms: The Pari Passu Clause and Sovereign Debt since 1872”
in preparation
Essays, reporting, op-eds, and criticism
The Alternate India: On Qurratulain Hyder’s forgotten vision of subcontinental history in “River of Fire.”
THE NATION
All in the FAM: On Amway and the mid-20th century history of multilevel marketing scams.
THE BAFFLER
Into the Disaster-Verse: On the epistemological problems climate pessimism creates for environmental history.
SOUTH ASIAN-AVANT-GARDE
The Instantaneous Injustice of Bail: On the cash bail system and its reforms in Cook County.
the american prospect
Shell’s Arctic Drilling: On the Obama administration’s record with Royal Dutch Shell and Arctic drilling.
In these times
2020 - Present
FOUNDER, ASSOCIATE EDITOR
south asian avant-garde inc.
Founding Director and former Editor of South Asian Avant-Garde, a literary magazine and a 501(c)3 non-profit organization with an internationalist ethos.
2015 - 2016
REPORTER, DOCUMENTER
CIty Bureau
Reporter in the public newsroom at the investigative journalism lab on the South Side of Chicago. Focus on criminal justice issues including monetary bond in Cook County. Documenter in collaboration with the Invisible Institute to produce open-source resources including “Task Force Tracker.”
2016 - Present
GRADUATE WRITING FELLOW & LECTOR
Yale university · university of chicago
2011 - Present
TEACHING FELLOW
Yale University
American Environmental History
Paul Sabin
Fundamentals of Comparison
The History of Money
Vanessa Ogle
India & Pakistan Since 1947
Rohit De
Marci Shore
UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
Developmental Mechanisms
Richard Fehon
Clifton Ragsdale
LAHORE UNIVERSITY OF MANAGEMENT SCIENCES
Introductory Biology
Shahid ali
Physiology
Mohammad tariq
Dec 2025
The Reef as Liability Relief
New Directions in American History · University of Chicago
Nov 2025
Space & Strategy in Sri Lanka’s Civil War, 1983–2009
Saxena Center for Contemporary South Asia, BROWN UNIVERSITY · Session: “The Contested Land: Property, Identity, and the Politics of Development”
Sep 2025
The Reef in the Oilfield: Petroleum Geology, and Oil Fetishism in Post-War British Honduras, 1950–1990
Oceans Working Group · consortium for history of Science, Technology and Medicine (CHSTM)
Sep 2025
Constructing the Geologic Reef in British Honduras
Yale Global Environmental History Colloquium
Apr 2025
Offshore Drilling & Petroleum Geology in the Postwar Caribbean
Apr 2025
Beyond Borders: Reporting South Asia for a Global Audience
South Asian Youth Initiative · Yale University
Sep 2024
Contemporary Printmaking as a Technology of Dissent
Brooklyn Art Book Fair 2024
Apr 2024
An Argument for the Reef as Rock: Reconnaissance & Coral Reefs in Ceylon, 1944-1972
AMERICAN SOCIETY OF ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY conference, denver · panel: “More-Than-Human Histories of Extraction: Violence and Care in the Technological Landscape”
Mar 2024
The “Coral Mining” Neologism: Cement Politics in the Indian Ocean, 1948–1980
Mar 2024
What Do We Mean When We Talk About Solidarity?
Feb 2024
Past, Present & Posterity
Nov 2023
Development, Mining & Ecology in Sri Lanka, 1948-1998
history of science society conference, portland · research presentation · panel: “Ecology”
Oct 2023
Contemporary Imaginaries of Disaster: Disaster & Affect in Romesh Gunesekera’s Reef
Tenth Annual Wollesen Memorial Graduate Symposium, “Contretemps.” · research presentation
Oct 2023
“The Most Modern Factory”: Cement & Early Developmentalism in Postcolonial Ceylon, 1948-1972
2025
SPRC/RITM Fellow: Racisms and Colonialisms in the Longue Durée
2025
Graduate Certificate in the Environmental Humanities
2023-24
Macmillan International Dissertation Fellow
2022-24
Franke Interdisciplinary Fellow in Sciences & the Humanities
2022
South Asian Studies Research Award
2020
Overbrook History Fellowship
2019
Chace Fellowship
2019-20
Pushcart Prize (two-time nominee)
2018-2019
Best of the Net (three-time nominee)
2014
UChicago-MBL Graduate Student Research Award
2013
George A. Hines Fellowship
English
NATIVE
Urdu
fluent/bilingual
Spanish
Intermediate
French
Intermediate
Sinhala
beginner
Tamil
beginner
Belizean Creole
beginner
Motion & Graphic Design
Digital Humanities Tools
Publishing
American Historical Association (AHA)
American Society of Environmental History (ASEH)
Association of Asian Studies (AAS)
History of Science Society (HSS)
Marine Science Studies Network (MSS)
SUNIL AMRITH
sunil.amrith@yale.edu
DEBORAH COEN
deborah.coen@yale.edu
ROHIT DE
rohit.de@yale.edu
LISA MESSERI
lisa.messeri@yale.edu
VICTORIA PRINCE
vprince@uchicago.edu
PAUL SABIN
paul.sabin@yale.edu
FREDRIK ALBRITTON JONSSON
Associate Professor, Conceptual & Historical Studies of Science, University of Chicago
fljonsso@uchicago.edu
LORRAINE DASTON
ldaston@uchicago.edu