Amen Jaffer is a sociologist whose teaching, research and advising interests lie in the fields of religion, urban studies, everyday life, difference and social control, social theory, political economy of waste and recycling, and the politics of space and infrastructure.
He is currently working on three projects. One is a a comparative ethnography of urban citizenship in low-income neighborhoods of Lahore which explores poor residents' engagements with the infrastructures of their neighborhoods as practices of forging political communities.
The second project is a book manuscript that explores practices of sociality in South Asian Sufi shrines. It focuses on ordinary social practices in these spaces - conversations, humor, collective preparation and consumption of food and drugs, etc - to demonstrate how an everyday spirituality is constructed through routine social engagements in this institution.
The third project, for which he is currently conducting fieldwork, investigates the social organization of the waste and recycling economy in Lahore by focusing on scrapyards run by Afghan refugees and jhuggi settlements of low-caste nomadic communities.
His co-edited volume, State and Subject Formation in South Asia, has been just published by OUP. For more information, visit:
https://oup.com.pk/state-and-subject-formation-in-south-asia.html
Jaffer, A. (2018). A Drama of Saintly Devotion: Performing Ecstasy and Status at the Shaam-e-Qalandar Festival in Pakistan. The Drama Review, 62 (4), 23-40.
Jaffer, A. (2017). "The Politics of Infrastructure in Pakistan". Global Dialogue Magazine of International Sociological Association, 7 (2), 15-16.
Jaffer, A. (2017). "Spiritualizing Marginality: Sufi Concepts and the Politics of Identity in Pakistan". Society and Culture in South Asia, 3 (2), 175-197, doi:10.1177/2393861717706294.
Jaffer, A. & Cheema, H. (2021). The production of Muslim space Mohalla life and Milad celebrations in Lahore, Published. Istvan Keul (Eds.), Spaces of Religion in Urban South Asia, Routledge.
Jaffer, A. & Saif, M. (2021). State and Subject Formation in South Asia.
Jaffer, A. (2021). Life in the Presence of Saints: Sociality and Islam in Pakistan's Urban Shrines (Under preparation).
Jaffer, A. (2019). "Opportunity and Stigma: The Paradoxes of Working with Waste in Lahore". AAS-in-Asia 2019 Annual Conference, Bangkok, Thailand.
Jaffer, A. (2019). "Mega Infrastructures and the Ecology of Recycling in Pakistan's Informal Economy". AAS Annual Conference, Denver, United States of America.
Jaffer, A. (2019). "Spaces of Fantasy: Celebrating the Prophet in Lahore". Realities & Fantasies: Amsterdam School of Cultural Analysis Annual Workshop, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Jaffer, A. (2018). The Infrastructures of Urban Citizenship in Lahore. Penn State Global Asias Summer Institute on Infrastructure, State College, Pennsylvania.
Jaffer, A. (2018). In Search of the Political: Social Life in Pakistan's Sufi Shrines. Summer Program in Social Sciences at the Institute of Advanced Studies, Princeton, New Jersey.
Jaffer, A. (2018). New Claims to the City: Women's Interventions in the Politics of Urban Infrastructure in Pakistan. XIX ISA World Congress of Sociology, Toronto, Canada.
Jaffer, A. (2018). "Performing Shahbaz Qalandar: The Marketization of Public Religion in Pakistan". XIX ISA World Congress of Sociology, Toronto, Canada.
Jaffer, A. (2018). "The Infrastructures of Urban Citizenship in Lahore". Penn State Global Asias Summer Institute on Infrastructure, State College, PA, United States of America.
Jaffer, A. (2018). "In Search of the Political: Social Life in Pakistan's Sufi Shrines.". Summer Program in Social Sciences at the Institute of Advanced Studies, Princeton, NJ, United States of America.
Jaffer, A. (2018). Spaces of Fantasy: Celebrating the Prophet in Lahore. Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis International Workshop, Realities and Fantasies, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Jaffer, A. (2018). Mega-Infrastructures and the Ecology of Recycling in Pakistan. Association for Asian Studies (AAS) Annual Conference, Denver, Colorado.
Jaffer, A. (2018). "New Claims to the City: Women's Interventions in the Politics of Urban Infrastructure in Pakistan". XIX ISA World Congress of Sociology, Toronto, Canada.
Jaffer, A. (2018). Performing Shahbaz Qalandar: The Marketization of Public Religion in Pakistan. XIX ISA World Congress of Sociology, Toronto, Canada.
Jaffer, A. (2017). Women Networks and the Politics of Infrastructure in Lahore. Right to the City in the South, Everyday Urban Experience and Rationalities of Government Conference, Universite Paris Diderot - Cessma, Paris, France.
Jaffer, A. (2017). Powers of the Sacred: the (Sufi) Shrine in Contemporary Punjab. American Sociological Association Annual Meeting, Montreal, Canada.
Jaffer, A. (2017). "Women Networks and the Politics of Infrastructure in Lahore". Right to the City in the South, Everyday Urban Experience and Rationalities of Government Conference, Universite Paris Diderot - Cessma, Paris, France.
Jaffer, A. (2017). "Powers of the Sacred: the (Sufi) Shrine in Contemporary Punjab". American Sociological Association Annual Meeting, Montreal, Canada.
Jaffer, A. (2016). Politics of Citizenship in Pakistan: Land and Urban Desires in Lahore. Urbanism, Exclusion and Change Conference, Lahore, Pakistan.
Jaffer, A. (2016). "Politics of Citizenship in Pakistan: Land and Urban Desires in Lahore". Urbanism, Exclusion and Change Conference, LUMS, Lahore, Pakistan.
Jaffer, A. (2016). "The Sacred Urban: Marginalization and Sufi Shrines in Lahore". Rethinking Cities of the Global South: Urban Violence, Social Inequality and Spatial Justice, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, India.
Jaffer, A. (2016). The Sacred Urban: Marginalization and Sufi Shrines in Lahore. Rethinking Cities of the Global South: Urban Violence, Social Inequality and Spatial Justice, Mumbai, India.
Jaffer, A. (2015). "Liberating the Desi Woman on our Screens". Annual Fulbright and Humphrey Alumni Conference, Islamabad, Pakistan.
Jaffer, A. (2015). "Democratizing Development: Urban Integration and Sufi Shrines in Pakistan.". Fourth Annual Conference of American Sociological Association's Sociology of Development Section, Brown University, Providence, RI, United States of America.
Jaffer, A. (2015). Democratizing Development: Urban Integration and Sufi Shrines in Pakistan. 4th annual conference of American Sociological Association's Sociology of Development Section, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island.
Jaffer, A. (2014). Cosmopolitan Traditions and Karachi's Imaginaries. Second Annual Karachi Conference, Karachi, Pakistan.
Jaffer, A. (2014). "The Graves that come Alive: Shrines and Social Life in Pakistan. Sixth Annual Global South Asia Conference, New York University, New York, New York.
Jaffer, A. (2014). "Cosmopolitan Traditions and Karachi's Imaginaries". Second Annual Karachi Conference, Karachi, Pakistan.
Jaffer, A. (2014). "The Graves that come Alive: Shrines and Social Life in Pakistan". Sixth Annual Global South Asia Conference, New York University, New York, United States of America.
Jaffer, A. (2009). "Impact of Consuming Mobile Phones on the Social Constructions of Public and Private Spaces". Critical Themes in Media Studies conference, New School University, New York, United States of America.
Jaffer, A. (2009). Impact of Consuming Mobile Phones on the Social Constructions of Public and Private Spaces. Critical Themes in Media Studies conference, New School University, New York, United States of America.