Usman Farooq

Researcher in DisTerrMem Project on Memory Studies

Lecturer of Political Science, teaching comparative politics and International Relations

The PhD thesis is about the Governance and State Transformation in 21st century conditions.

The following contract was provided on the basis of my previous involvement in the same research. As an independent research assistant and expert on social dynamics of Pakistan, the job is to coordinate all tasks as well as missions and field trips with the project leader at BICC. These include interviewing, fixing contacts, analyzing data, translation where necessary, and collection of further data if necessary.

Research Assistant in project name “Motor or Brake? The effect of religion on sustainable development”. My primary task is to perform qualitative data coding of around 54 countries of Central Asia, Middle East, Southern Africa, South Asia, and parts of Western Europe. The period under investigation covers all years between 1990 and 2015. The data set will be mainly used to investigate relations between important religious variables and important dimensions of development, including conflict.

As a junior researcher the primary task in this job was to collect quantitative and qualitative data through field surveys: conduct Focus Group Discussion (FGD) and qualitative research interviews. The job also required data entry and data coding of different surveys and research reports on SPSS and Microsoft Excel, graphing of the results and data analysis, and short reports on each research project. I was also assisting some for the training programs for capacity building of Civil Society Organizations.

The primary task was to assist field research of two of the researchers of ZEF in Lahore and periphery areas. The primary task was to translate (from Urdu, Punjabi, Saraiki to English) qualitative research interviews, and Focus Group Discussion (FGD) with different state authorities, civil society activists, and officials of various non-profit organizations. The job also required minutes writing, collecting and copying the data provided by different individuals and organizations, and data translation.

The main responsibilities of this job were to assist the Director Community Development in administrating the housing society e.g. supervising security, managing complaint center, organizing cultural, educational and recreational events. On the other hand, administering the construction process of new housing units e.g. preparing monthly bills of contractors, quality control of construction material, supervising the engineering staff responsible for construction, and administer the security staff on site.

Naked Punch Review is a quarterly interdisciplinary magazine of philosophy, art, politics, and poetry. This job required helping the editorial board in the editing of the selected studies, essays, and articles for Asia edition, printing and publication of the magazine, and its distribution.

The major responsibility for this job was to host two (3 hours each) radio programs on Sufism and socio- cultural issues. To prepare for each program I had to review the literature on relevant topics, interview individuals, and to collect music and sound records to play in the program.

Political Science, History, sociology, economics

Sociology and some courses of Economics and Political Science