After being awarded the 2025 Andretta Fellowship through the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) Research, Teaching, and Service at Georgetown University in Washington, DC, Minahil Mahmud Khan, a third-year student at Georgetown University in Qatar (GU-Q), will spend her summer examining shifting forms of civic engagement and political expression in post-2022 Pakistan.
This is the second award that the International Politics major has received through CSJ: last summer Minahil travelled to Bosnia and Herzegovina, with an Education and Social Justice fellowship collaboratively offered with the Berkley Centre for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs. “The Andretta Fellowship felt like the natural next step, offering more autonomy in defining my research topic and approach,” she said.
This summer, the Andretta Fellowship will take her back home, where she will research Pakistan’s political resistance and democratic participation in the aftermath of Imran Khan’s dismissal. “This is a topic I have been planning to pursue for over two years,” said Minahil, who has drawn from her studies in International Affairs to understand the context and importance of the research.
With only one Andretta Fellowship awarded each year, Minahil is the first student from GU-Q to receive this award, an honour she doesn’t take lightly. Her research aims to contribute to the scholarly understanding of political engagement and preserving democratic rights in Pakistan. She will analyse how everyday Pakistanis understand and engage with their government today, from open confrontation and peaceful protest to more subtle forms of everyday resistance.
“I am struck by the extent to which the current government and establishment suppress dissent—and equally by the persistence of the Pakistani people in pushing back,” she added.
Minahil Mahmud Khan
