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Prof. Salima Hashmi is an artist, curator and contemporary art historian. She was founding Dean at the Mariam Dawood School of Visual Arts and Design at Beaconhouse National University, Lahore in 2003. She taught at the National College of Arts, Lahore, for 30 years and was the Principal of the College for 4 years.
She is the recipient of multiple awards including the President's Medal for Pride of Performance for Art Education, the Sughra Rababi Lifetime Achievement Award and a Lifetime Achievement Award at the LLF. The Australian Council of Art and Design Schools nominated her Inaugural International Fellow in 2011, and in the same year she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by Bath Spa University, UK.
Justin W. Cook is the Founding Executive Director of the Center for Complexity at Rhode Island School of Design and Design Critic at Harvard's Graduate School of Design. His work focuses on developing novel organizational architectures to address systemic challenges in healthcare, sustainability, and education. Previously, he spent a decade as Senior Lead for Strategy at the Finnish Innovation Fund, Sitra, advancing strategic design for social impact.
Dr Faisal Khan is a neo-biologist leading an interdisciplinary research lab that works at the intersection of biology, data, medicine and the humanities. His Lab is spearheading precision medicine and synthetic biology research in Pakistan as well as in emerging areas including digital health, space biology, bioart and the bioeconomy. Dr Khan won several awards and honors for his Masters and DPhil at the University of Oxford.
Dr. Anzar Khaliq is the founding Chief Learning Officer at San Francisco Bay University, leading the Center for Empowerment and Pedagogical Innovation. With a PhD in Experimental Physics from Sorbonne, he specializes in design thinking, transdisciplinary education, and AI-driven educational innovations. He has held key leadership roles in innovative academic programs and was a founding faculty member of Habib University, where he founded Pakistan's first design research lab.
Maria Aslam is a multifaceted individual, renowned as a prolific writer, architectural historian, and environmental activist. Her expertise spans the fields of interior design, architecture, heritage, and urban revitalization. As the founder and Editor-in-Chief of ADA Magazine from Pakistan, Maria has made significant contributions to the discourse on architecture, design, and art. She holds the distinction of being the first female entrepreneur from Pakistan to venture into publication, spearheading the ADA Awards, a ground-breaking initiative in the disciplines of Architecture, Design, and Art.
Dr. Ijlal Muzaffar is Professor of Architectural History at the Rhode Island School of Design, in Providence, Rhode Island, USA. He is the author of Modernism's Magic Hat: Architecture and the Illusion of Development without Capital (University of Texas Press, 2024) and the co-editor of the volume Architecture in Development Systems and the Emergence of the Global South (Routledge, 2022). His work has been published widely in academic journals, museum and biennale catalogues and edited volumes.
Prof. Quddus Mirza is a painter, art critic, an independent curator and a Professor at MDSVAD, BNU, Lahore. He has trained several generations of artists in Pakistan. As a practicing painter, he has shown extensively in exhibitions held around the world and contributed to collections including the British Museum. Mirza is also recognized as an art curator and critic, writing columns regularly for The News, and contributing and publishing extensively in multiple mediums. He is the editor of online art magazine Art Now Pakistan.
Web: BNU
Rohma Khan is a multi-disciplinary artist, educator, researer, Associate Professor, and Program Head- IEDA (Interdisciplinary Expanded Design and Art) at MDSVAD, BNU. Rohma has had affiliations with local and international institutions, development-sector organizations and advertising industry, spanning across disciplines with areas of investigation ranging from deep-historical to abstract futuristic ideas, artifacts and practices.
Web: BNU
Durre is a multidisciplinary designer and educator, currently an Assistant Professor and Program Coordinator for the IEDA (Interdisciplinary Expanded Design & Art) program at SVAD, BNU. As an Industrial Designer and Design Researcher, she has collaborated with organizations globally to address critical social and healthcare challenges. Her research delves into the complex dynamics of power, politics, and neocoloniality in design practice and pedagogy, exploring their impact on democratic systems. She is also a member of the Social Design Network (SDN).
Web: BNU
A multidisciplinary architect with ten years of experience in academia, Manal has been associated with various conferences, conversations and panels as a participant and an organizer. Extensive experience in mentoring for creative learning has exposed her to multiple research and innovation platforms within and outside Pakistan, including the Self-Learning Resource Centre at BNU. As a licensed architect from PCATP, Her creative research and practice revolves around posthuman worlds and democratic design.
Linked in: Manal Abdullah
Aarish Sardar is a design educator & an interdisciplinary creative practitioner, and the Head-VCD (Visual Communication Design) at MDSVAD, BNU. With an MA from Kingston University London (2006), Aarish has worked as a communication designer & a multimedia consultant with clientele internationally from the USA, UK to Pakistan and beyond. He has exhibited his interdisciplinary works in various group shows within and outside of Pakistan. Aarish also writes about arts and culture for The Dawn and The News on Sunday, The Karachi Collective, Friday Times, The Iconica Magazine in Pakistan, and Arte Morbida.
Web: BNU
Zahra Mirza is an interdisciplinary artist, researcher, and educator based in Pakistan and Austria currently teaching at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. She initiated and managed project Artversation, facilitating interdisciplinary projects, research, and discourse at the intersection of arts, sciences, outside disciplines and curious technologies.
Web: Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, Austria
Madyha J. Leghari (b. 1991) is a visual artist, writer and educator working between Lahore and Washington DC. She earned a BFA at the National College of Arts, Lahore (2013) and an MFA from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design (2018) through a Fulbright Scholarship. Her practice revolves around the possibilities and limitations of language, and is often positioned in the indeterminate spaces of translation, cultural friction, and semantic lacunae.
