Rounaq Jahan

Senior Research Scholar and Adjunct Professor, International Affairs at the School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University, New York

Rounaq Jahan is a Senior Research Scholar and Adjunct Professor, International Affairs at the School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University, New York, USA. She obtained a PhD in political science from Harvard University. She was a Professor of Political Science at Dhaka University, Bangladesh (1970-1982); coordinator of the Women in Development Programme at UN Asia-Pacific Development Centre, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (1982-84); and head of the Programme on Rural Women at the International Labour Office, Geneva, Switzerland (1985-89).
Professor Jahan is the author of several books and numerous articles. Her publications include: Bangladesh Politics, Dhaka: University Press Ltd, 2005; Bangladesh: Promise and Performance (editor), London Zed Books, 2000; The Elusive Agenda: Mainstreaming Women in Development, London, Zed Books, 1995; Bangladesh Politics: Problems and Issues, Dhaka: University Press Ltd., 1980; Women and Development: Perspectives from South and South East Asia (co-editor), Dhaka, Bangladesh Institute of Law and International Affairs, 1979; and Pakistan: Failure in National Integration, New York: Columbia University Press, 1972.
In addition to academia, Professor Jahan is involved with the work of many civil society organisations. She is the founder of Women for Women, a research and study group in Bangladesh. She serves on the advisory board of Human Rights Watch: Asia and is the convenor of the advisory board of Bangladesh Health Watch, a civil society network. She lives and works both in Bangladesh and the US.