Aly Panjwani, Programs Assistant

Within the Culture and Politics program in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, Aly Panjwani studies the role of the arts in political resistance, specifically examining Islamophobic narrative setting in U.S. national security policy and how theatre and the arts can combat these homogenous state narratives. Furthermore, his research focuses on statelessness, occupation, and how the arts can be a powerful tool to express identity in oppression through storytelling. Aly is also a co-creator and performer in I Pledge Allegiance. Since he was young, Aly has been involved in his Ismaili Muslim community, teaching religious classes, leading summer camps, and composing contemporary devotional music. On campus, he has interned for the Bridge Initiative, a think-tank on Islamophobia, currently serves as the Chair for the Alternative Breaks Program at the Center for Social Justice, and is an activist for different social issues. While studying abroad in Morocco, he interned for Azetta, an indigenous rights organization for the Amazigh community. In 2016, he traveled to Kyrgyzstan to facilitate a summer camp with the Aga Khan Development Network’s University of Central Asia in which he led several arts workshops. Aly’s ultimate goal is to use education and the arts as an avenue to making politics about our shared humanness.

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