Doctoral Candidate in Sociocultural Anthropology
About
Saquib Ali Usman is a PhD candidate exploring the intricate relationship between sight (basar) and insight (baseera) in the Islamic world. How do sensory practices become perceptions and forms of knowledge exchanged and transmitted in society? How do sensory capacities shape social formations and divisions? For his dissertation research, Usman approaches questions such as these through ethnographic engagements with blind and sighted interlocutors in the south Saharan country of Mauritania, and through studying systems of knowledge and their historical transformations.
His academic work critically interfaces with the anthropology and history of sensation, disability, semiotics, face-to-face interaction, the social production of space and place, regional formation, the idea of "remoteness", Islamic studies, and African Studies.
His dissertation work is generously supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF-GRFP) and the Wenner-Gren Foundation.
