Hasan Karrar

Hasan Karrar received his PhD in East Asian Studies from McGill University, where he trained as a specialist on China and Central Asia.

His current writing focuses on bazaars and markets in Central Asia and China’s border regions, examining what these ubiquitous public spaces reveal about the economic and political structures in which they operate. He has also published widely on transnational connections and geopolitical alignments linking China, Central Asia, and northern Pakistan, tracing how these relationships register in local histories and affects, multilateral initiatives, and curated Silk Road imaginaries. More broadly, his research interests include development, governance, and securitization on state peripheries, as well as the deployment and representation of Chinese economic and strategic power—particularly how Chinese authority responds to, and is shaped by, on-the-ground realities in countries where China is pursuing partnership.

He is co-lead of the British Academy Global Convening Programme Chinese Global Orders. His research on informal markets and trade in Central Asia and the Caucasus has received generous support from the Volkswagen Foundation. He serves on the editorial board of Asian Anthropology, the advisory board of the International Quarterly of Asian Studies, and the academic committee of the Asian Borderlands Research Network. He has previously served as Chair of the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at LUMS and has held visiting affiliations with institutions in Canada and China. His Google Scholar page is available online, and many of his writings can be found on his personal webpage; readers are encouraged to contact him by email if a specific work is not available.