Dr. Ameem Lutfi  (Assistant Professor, HSS) has been awarded the ‘Engaged Research’ grant from the Wenner-Gren Foundation. This prestigious grant recognizes projects that demonstrate a commitment to engaging with marginalized communities not just as research subjects, but as partners in a collaborative effort to 'expand anthropological knowledge, combat inequality, and help communities flourish.'.

His project, tentatively titled 'Booms and Busts of Small-Scale Private Schools,' shifts the focus from the disappearing government schools and elite private institutions to home-based, low-fee private schools that currently educate the majority of Pakistan's urban school-going population. In this project, we will engage teachers, graduating seniors, parents, and principals as research partners, inviting them to contribute regular voice notes on the social, economic, and political aspects that are crucial to sustaining the small-scale private school ecosystem.

This partnership will move beyond simply diagnosing the problems faced by these schools, as we work together to establish a community center that offers after-school supplementary learning, skill-based training, teacher training, and career counseling. By fostering a spirit of collaboration and empowerment, we aim to create a lasting, positive impact on the lives of those involved in the small-scale private school community. By fostering a spirit of collaboration and community development, the project hopes to offer innovative decolonial methodological approach for engaged and impactful ethnographic research.