Federical Valabrega’s photo essay on the lives of Orthodox Jewish women in Brooklyn, New York that appeared on Time Lightbox reminded me of something I had read in Carol A. Brekenridge and Peter van der Veer’s excellent book Orientalism And The Post Colonial Predicament.
Asim Rafiqui is a Ph.D. research candidate at the University of Delft, Department of Architecture. He is a member of the Topological Atlas project researching methodologies for producing visual counter-geographies at border sites. Asim’s research looks at the impact of development projects on Indigenous land and oceanic relations in Baluchistan, Pakistan.
Asim completed a MA in Social Anthropology from Goldsmiths College, the University of London, in 2018. He conducted ethnographic fieldwork in Jackson, Mississippi, for his thesis. His research looked at the challenges facing community activists building a network of cooperatives and worker-owned enterprises in the inner city neighborhoods.
Previously Asim worked as an independent photojournalist for US and European publications. He was of an Open Society Fellowship in 2012 and a Fulbright Fellow in 2011.