Khalid Anis Ansari (he/him) is a researcher, educator, and passionate advocate of the anti-caste Pasmanda Movement within Indian Muslims. Khalid’s primary research pertains to social and cultural theory, focusing on democracy and counterpublics, sociology of caste and religion, minority studies, and public policy. He served as Associate Professor and Director, Ambedkar Centre for Exclusion Studies & Transformative Action (ACESTA) at Glocal University (India), where he taught social anthropology for over eight years. Before joining academics, he worked in leadership positions in the social sector for 10+ years. He coordinated research and community development projects supported by international agencies such as the HIVOS (the Netherlands), Mensen Met Een Missie (the Netherlands), Action Aid (UK), and the Gandhi Foundation (United Kingdom).
Khalid has published widely in reputed academic journals and popular spaces like the Economic & Political Weekly, Critical Philosophy of Race, The Women Philosophers’ Journal (UNESCO), The Indian Express, The Hindu, The Print, Outlook, The Wire, and so on. Besides, he has delivered invited talks at prominent universities like Michigan University (US), Harvard University (US), the University of Free State (South Africa), the University of Humanistic Studies (the Netherlands), and so on. Since 2021, he has also been a research partner with Simagine (Social Imaginaries between Secularity and Religion in a Globalizing World). This research consortium includes eleven partner institutions from Europe, the USA, and South Africa.
Khalid holds two Master’s degrees, MBA (Human Resource Management) and MA (Sociology), and a Ph.D. in integrated social sciences from the University of Humanistic Studies (UvH), the Netherlands. He can be reached at khalidanisansari@gmail.com.