Professor Ayesha Jalal
After over twenty-eight years of teaching, a MacArthur “Genius” Award Fellowship, and a staggering list of major publications—including her most recent book, The Struggle for Pakistan—Professor of History Ayesha Jalal definitely stands as an example of where I dream to be one day. She serves as the Director of Tufts’ Center for South Asian and Indian Ocean Studies and teaches courses like Contemporary South Asia; and Modern South Asia: History, Culture, and Political Economy, among others. When I asked her about the beginning of her lifelong study of history, she explained that it all began with questions. “I had questions about South Asia—about where I come from in Pakistan,” she said. “I enjoyed asking questions that brought me closer to understanding the larger picture.” Her focus on South Asia also began from questions examining the historical partition of India, which resulted in the creation of two countries—Pakistan and India—that have had hostile relations ever since. Why were these countries separated? What were those problems? How have they evolved?
Her career has certainly been dedicated to answering many of these questions. She is a leading historian of Pakistan and the factors that led to its creation, as well as the political and religious history of South Asia. At Tufts, Professor Jalal challenges her students to ask their own questions. “History is not just about memorizing names,” Professor Jalal pointed out. “It’s about [being able to] really understand and analyze concepts.” According to Professor Jalal, there are lessons in history that allow scholars to “engage with the present in a more imaginative way”—something that doesn’t happen if one “remains completely ensconced in the present,” as she put it. Studying history also helps students critically distinguish between myth and history, and understand the crucial role that myth plays in society. “Perceptions matter,” Professor Jalal explained. “It is important to know how [they are] created, and what purpose [they serve], because that’s the only way you will know how people think.”
History is not just about being able to memorize names - It's about [being able to] really understand and analyze concepts... to engage with the present in a more imaginative way.
Professor Jalal’s goal for her students is to acquire the ability to empathize—to learn from the lessons of the past in order to “craft a future that is based on different premises.” Students last year who took her class, South Asian History in a Transnational Perspective, experienced firsthand how Professor Jalal welcomes different perspectives into her classroom. The class itself was video-linked; Professor Jalal taught the class at Lahore University of Management Sciences in Pakistan, and coordinated with Associate Professor of History Kris Manjapra to hold discussions between the two classrooms halfway across the world from one another. “Across time zones, across so many miles, were students who were able to exchange ideas in a truly exhilarating fashion,” Professor Jalal said. At Tufts, she teaches classes in the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts’ graduate school of international affairs, which gives undergraduates the opportunity to study alongside Fletcher students and learn from their years of working experience in the field of international relations. “One has to learn to live in a world of multiplicity,” she said. “We live in a complex world, and education is about how you process knowledge in order to make sense of that complex world.”