Dr. Asma Abbas is Full Professor at Prince Mohammad Bin Fahd University and Professor Emerita of Politics and Philosophy at Bard College at Simon’s Rock (USA). Previously, she served as Dean at Al Akhawayn University (Morocco) and the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture (Pakistan), and held the Fulbright–Masaryk Distinguished Chair at Masaryk University (Czech Republic).
A political theorist working across philosophy, history, aesthetics, education, and anticolonial thought, Abbas investigates how political worlds are constituted, inhabited, experienced, and transformed. Her scholarship examines relationships among place, political form, sensibility, and knowledge, attending to the historical and material conditions of political life.
She is the author of two scholarly monographs, Another Love: A Politics of the Unrequited (Lexington Books, 2018) and Liberalism and Human Suffering (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010). Her research has appeared in Hypatia, Theory & Event, Democratic Theory, South Asia Review, and other scholarly publications. She has also co-edited Falsework, Smalltalk and founded Anticolonial Maps for Lost Lovers, an international research and curatorial initiative.
Across two decades of teaching, research, and academic leadership, Abbas has developed interdisciplinary programmes and collaborations connecting universities, cultural institutions, and public scholarship. Her teaching cultivates sustained inquiry across different intellectual traditions, encouraging students to question inherited understandings and develop independent judgment.
Her current research explores the state-form, place and displacement, and the production of experience, sensibility, and political knowledge.
Ph.D. in Political Science, Pennsylvania State University, State College, Pennsylvania, USA, 2005
M.A. in Liberal Studies, New School for Social Research, New York, USA, 2001
M.B.A. and B.B.A., Institute of Business Administration, Karachi, Pakistan, 1998
Monographs
Abbas, A. (2018). Another Love: A Politics of the Unrequited. Rowman & Littlefield.
Abbas, A. (2010). Liberalism and Human Suffering: Materialist Reflections on Politics, Ethics, and Aesthetics. Palgrave Macmillan.
Edited Volumes
Abbas, A., & Eubank, C. (Eds.). (2021). Falsework, Smalltalk: Political Education, Aesthetic Archives, and Recitations of a Future in Common. Some Beloved / Folio Books.
Selected Journal Articles and Scholarly Essays
Abbas, A. (2025). On the conditions of the possibility of our anticolonial synaesthetics. South Asia Review.
Abbas, A. (2023). I'd like an inefficient Brecht, please: Reading red aesthetics. nonsite.org, 41.
Abbas, A. (2020). No demos in the pandemic. Democratic Theory.
Abbas, A. (2017). From the love studio. Hypatia.
Abbas, A. (2010). Voice lessons: Suffering and the liberal sensorium. Theory & Event, 13(2).
Abbas, A. (2005). Damages Inc.: Making the sublime matter. Politics and Culture, 6(2).
Selected Book Chapters
Abbas, A. (2014). In love, in terror, out of time. In S. Razack & S. Perera (Eds.), At the limits of justice: Women of colour theorize terror. University of Toronto Press.
Abbas, A. (2012). On Midnight's Children and reading politically. In B. Rodgers (Ed.), Critical insights: Salman Rushdie. Salem Press.
Research and Curatorial Publications
Abbas, A. (2025). Anticolonial maps for lost lovers: A companion. Some Beloved.
Abbas, A. (2023–2025). Anticolonial maps for lost lovers [Research and curatorial project]. Hic Rosa Collective / American Arts Centre, Casablanca. https://anticolonialmapsforlostlovers.com
Professor, College of Sciences and Human Studies, Prince Mohammad Bin Fahd University, Saudi Arabia (2026–present)
Professor Emerita of Politics and Philosophy, Simon's Rock, Bard College, USA (2025–present)
Programme Faculty, Global Centre for Advanced Studies, Ireland (2024-present)
Graduate Faculty, Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture, Pakistan (2019-present)
Associate Faculty, Brooklyn Institute for Social Research, USA (2015–present)
Founder and Director, Hic Rosa: An Art, Education, and Politics Collective, USA (2015–present)
Founder and Director, Anticolonial Maps for Lost Lovers, international research and curatorial initiative
Executive Director, Some Beloved, international collaborative production house (2021–present)
Dr. Asma Abbas is a political theorist and interdisciplinary scholar whose research spans political philosophy, intellectual history, aesthetics, cultural studies, education, and anticolonial thought. Over two decades, she has developed a body of scholarship concerned with the historical and material conditions through which political worlds, forms of knowledge, and possibilities of experience are constituted and transformed.
Her two scholarly monographs, Liberalism and Human Suffering: Materialist Reflections on Politics, Ethics, and Aesthetics (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010) and Another Love: A Politics of the Unrequited (Rowman & Littlefield, 2018), examine the relationships among suffering, love, political subjectivity, and the limits of established political and ethical categories. Her research has appeared in international scholarly journals, including Hypatia, Theory & Event, Democratic Theory, and South Asia Review, as well as edited collections addressing political philosophy, feminist theory, literature, and cultural politics. Her scholarly contributions have been recognized through the Fulbright–Masaryk Distinguished Chair, international research and visiting appointments, and the 2025 Exceptional Reviewer Award from Polity.
Her current research extends these inquiries into the relationships among political form, place, sensibility, and knowledge. Projects including State and Form, After Place, and Anti-Odysseus investigate the changing character of the state, the production of political and aesthetic experience, and the possibilities of thought and collective life across histories of colonialism, displacement, and political transformation. Together, these projects develop an interdisciplinary approach to political inquiry that brings historical materialism into conversation with philosophy, literature, artistic practice, and the histories of anticolonial thought.
An important dimension of Abbas's scholarship is the development of collaborative intellectual and cultural institutions. As founder of Hic Rosa, an international collective devoted to art, education, and politics, she has organized research studios, exhibitions, conferences, and experimental programmes of study across several countries. Her ongoing initiative, Anticolonial Maps for Lost Lovers, brings together philosophical inquiry, archival research, visual and literary practices, and curatorial experimentation to investigate the production of place, memory, and political imagination. She is also co-editor of Falsework, Smalltalk: Political Education, Aesthetic Archives, and Recitations of a Future in Common (Folio Books, 2021), a collaborative publication exploring the intersections of political education, aesthetic practice, and collective intellectual life.
Abbas's academic leadership has similarly been shaped by her commitment to research, interdisciplinary inquiry, and the public life of scholarship. As Dean at Al Akhawayn University in Morocco and the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture in Pakistan, and through her work at Bard College at Simon's Rock, she has led academic programmes, developed research and educational initiatives, convened international scholarly gatherings, and established partnerships among universities, cultural organisations, and research communities. Her work has connected scholars, artists, educators, and students across North America, Europe, North Africa, South Asia, and the Middle East.
At Prince Mohammad Bin Fahd University, Abbas brings this international experience to the development of an intellectually engaged research culture, interdisciplinary scholarly collaboration, and the mentorship of faculty and emerging researchers. Her work continues to explore the relationships among political thought, artistic practice, and the forms of knowledge through which contemporary worlds may be understood and transformed.
Graduate Instructor, Pennsylvania State University, Pennsylvania, USA, 2002–2005
Assistant Professor of Politics and Philosophy, Bard College at Simon's Rock, Massachusetts, USA, 2005–2010
Associate Professor of Politics and Philosophy, Bard College at Simon's Rock, Massachusetts, USA, 2010–2020
Division Head, Social Studies, Bard College at Simon's Rock, Massachusetts, USA, 2011–2015
Emily H. Fisher Faculty Fellow, Bard College at Simon's Rock, Massachusetts, USA, 2015–2017
Fulbright–Masaryk Distinguished Chair in Social Studies, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic, 2018
Dean of Academics and Professor of the Liberal Arts, Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture, Karachi, Pakistan, 2018–2020
Founding Director, Annex and Studios in Collaborative, Transdisciplinary, and Experimental Studies, Bard College at Simon's Rock, Massachusetts, USA, 2019–2025
Professor of Politics and Philosophy, Bard College at Simon's Rock, Massachusetts, USA, 2020–2025
Senior Research Fellow, Global Centre for Advanced Studies, Dublin, Ireland, 2021–2024
Dean, School of Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities, Al Akhawayn University, Ifrane, Morocco, 2022–2026
Visiting Graduate Faculty, University of Naples L'Orientale, Naples, Italy, 2024
Visiting Faculty, IULM University, Milan, Italy, 2025
Professor of Sciences and Human Studies, Prince Mohammad Bin Fahd University, Al Khobar, Saudi Arabia, 2026–present
At PMU, Fall 2026
Communication
Psychology
Systems Thinking
Political and Social Thought, History of Ideas, Comparative and Global Studies, Philosophy and Aesthetics, Cultural and Literary Studies, Art and Visual Culture, Religion and Secularism, Gender and Feminist Studies, Education and Pedagogy, Place and Spatial Studies, Critical and Interdisciplinary Humanities.
Editorial and Professional Service
Editorial Board Member, Polity.
Exceptional Reviewer Award, Polity, American Political Science Association, 2025.
Reviewer for Hypatia, Politics & Gender, Contemporary Political Theory, PS: Political Science & Politics, and Journal of Third World Studies.
Manuscript Reviewer for Oxford University Press, Routledge, and Pearson Longman.
Programme Committee Member, Association for Political Theory (2016).
Section Chair for Political Theory, New England Political Science Association (2008–2009).
Scholarly Organizations and Conference Participation
American Political Science Association
Middle East Studies Association
Association for Political Theory
Western Political Science Association
National Women's Studies Association
Critical Ethnic Studies Association
Law & Society Association
