AQSA IJAZ, Ph.D.
About Me
I am a self-professed lover of words (philologist) at a time when philology seems to have lost its conceptual currency in modern humanities. With a history of crossing various borders, I was born and raised in Lahore, Pakistan, where I trained as a pilot and a classical musician before joining academia. In Lahore, I studied English Literature, Philosophy, and French, and later explored South Asian and Religious Studies in Germany and the United States. I pursued my doctoral studies at the Institute of Islamic Studies at McGill University.
As a premodernist, I am fascinated by the temporality of the past and the diverse ways it captures our scholarly and poetic attention. The drive to listen to and communicate the multilingual voices of the past is at the heart of my academic and artistic work. This passion led me to write my doctoral dissertation on the 12th-century Persian poet, Nizami Ganjavi, and the multilingual reception of his celebrated love poem "Khusrau u Shirin" in Persianate India. My research aims to challenge the methodological frameworks of European theory and reconceptualize the history of ideas from within the philological density of the Islamic world.
Professional Experience
Background & Expertise
University of Toronto
Assistant Professor (Teaching Stream)
January 2023 - June 2024
Project Manager
The Global Past Research Initiative
Connaught Fund-University of Toronto
July 2024 - May 2025
Guided Study Director: Premodern Persian
Department of Religion and Historical StudiesÂ
University of Toronto Mississauga
January 2023 - June 2024
Review Editor
The Marginalia Review of Books
June 2021 - Aug 2021
Urdu Instructor
Intensive Summer Training
4 hours, 5 days a week for 8 weeks
Sept 2021Â - Dec 2021
Course Instructor
Advanced Urdu
McGill University
Sept 2019  - May 2020
Course Instructor
Intermediate Urdu
McGill University
Sept 2018- May 2019
Course Instructor
Introductory Urdu
McGill University
July 12, 2023
Book Reviewer
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July 2024 - May 2025
Translator
Educational Background
September 2022Â - August 203
Ian Stewart Graduate Fellow
University of Victoria
September 2017 - June 2024
PhD Islamic Studies
McGill University
August 2012 - May 2014
MPhil English Literature
Sept 2006 - Aug 2010
BA (hons.) English Literature, Philosophy, and French
September 2015Â - January 2016
Junior Faculty Fellow
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
August 2011 - Nov 2011