Education
- Ph.D. in History, Trinity College, University of Cambridge, UK (2013)
- MSc in History of International Relations (Distinction), London School of Economics, UK (2007)
- BSc (Hons) Social Sciences (Political Science), Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), Pakistan (2006)
Teaching and Research Experience
- Visiting Fellow, Trinity College, University of Cambridge, UK (2022)
- Assistant Professor of History, Institute of Business Administration, Karachi, Pakistan (2013–2022)
- Rangoonwala Visiting Fellow, University of Oxford, UK (2020)
Courses Taught
- Pakistan History
- 20th Century International History
- Politics in Colonial Punjab
- History of the Cold War
- Inter-Disciplinary Social Science Seminar
- Introduction to Historical Methods
- Topics in Historiography
- What is Modernity
- Pakistan and Modern South Asia
- Global Histories
- World Historical Figures
Research Interests
- Landowning elites of colonial Punjab and their relationship with the Muslim League
- Shifts in center–province relations during decolonisation
- Post-colonial adaptations of colonial state structures in India and Pakistan
- Provincial nationalism and the transitional state
Biography
Dr. Newal Osman is a historian and educator specializing in South Asian history, with a particular focus on colonial and post-colonial transitions in India and Pakistan. Her scholarship examines the complex dynamics of decolonisation, center–province relations, and the political transformation surrounding the India–Pakistan partition.
She earned her Ph.D. in History from Trinity College, University of Cambridge, where her doctoral research explored the evolution of center–province relations in the late colonial Indian state and their transformation in Pakistan, with a special emphasis on West Punjab. This work forms the basis of her forthcoming book. She also holds an MSc in History of International Relations (with Distinction) from the London School of Economics and a BSc (Hons) in Social Sciences (Political Science) from Lahore University of Management Sciences, with double minors in Mathematics and Economics.
Dr. Osman served as Assistant Professor of History at the Institute of Business Administration (IBA), Karachi, where she taught a wide range of courses in international history, historiography, and South Asian studies, supervised undergraduate theses, and contributed to building a vibrant academic culture. Earlier, she worked as a Research Associate at the Sindh Education Foundation and as a Research Assistant at the University of Cambridge.
She has held prestigious visiting fellowships at Trinity College, University of Cambridge, and at the University of Oxford as the Rangoonwala Visiting Fellow. Her research has been presented at major international conferences and is being published by leading academic presses. She also serves as an Associate Editor and Reviewer for the Liberal Arts and Social Sciences International Journal (LASSIJ) and regularly provides consultancy to the Citizens’ Archive of Pakistan.
Beyond academia, Dr. Osman actively engages in public scholarship through literary and academic festivals. She is a recipient of numerous competitive scholarships and fellowships, including awards from the Cambridge Commonwealth Trust, Smuts Memorial Fund, Trinity College Cambridge, and the Rangoonwala Trust.
Publications
- Osman, N. “Dancing with the Enemy,” in Muslims against the Muslim League. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017.
