Meet CREST

CREST Community Adjunct Professorship, 2007-2008

Madiha J Bhatti is a fifth year PhD student enrolled in the Cultural Anthropology program at the State University of New York at Buffalo. Some of her research interests include Gender and Islam, Social Construction of Cultures, Third World Feminism, Race and Identity, Relations of Inequality, and East/West Relations.

She has recently returned from conducting dissertational fieldwork in Lahore, Pakistan and is now in the process of writing her dissertation. Her current project, a continuation of her Master's thesis, is entitled "Educated Pakistani Women's Perspectives: Reinforcing Tradition or Seeking Change?" Her main interest lies in examining how the exposure and permeation of Western notions and values through education, media, and technology has influenced the perspectives of Educated Pakistani women in relation to gender identity, culture and religion. Her analysis of this research is centered on two questions: Does an educated Muslim woman view the gender hierarchy of the patriarchal system as problematic? How does a woman interpret, cope with, negotiate, and reconcile her social status?

Madiha is looking forward to teaching "Representation/Misrepresentation: Feminist Discourse of Women and Islam" in Spring 2008. This course is being offered through the Women Studies Program.