Hana Shams Ahmed

I am a doctoral candidate of social anthropology at York University with an MA in sociocultural anthropology from the University of Western Ontario, Canada, and an MA in development studies from BRAC University, Bangladesh.

My doctoral research project is an ethnographic study of the discourse and practice of submitting complaints or abedons (আবেদন) in land claims in the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh where the Jumma Indigenous peoples live under constant state surveillance, militarization, and threat of violence. I will focus on how the Jumma mobilize around land, articulate their rights to land in terms of their relationship to ancestral land, territory, and culture through the medium of complaints and complaining. I want to find out why complaints have become central to the claims making process for the indigenous peoples, why these claims are focused on rights to land, and what do they hope to achieve through these complaints.

In Bangladesh, I have worked as the coordinator of the International Chittagong Hill Tracts Commission (CHTC) since 2009. I have previously worked as the Assistant Editor of the Forum, a monthly news magazine of The Daily Star and as a Feature Writer for The Star, a weekly magazine of The Daily Star.