Research Focus Areas

• Emerging Infectious Diseases
• Reemerging Infectious Diseases
• COVID-19
• Measles
• Vaccination
• Geopolitics
• Biopolitics
• Structured Disparities
• South Asia
• Pakistan
• Sindh

Short Biography

Inayat Ali Ph.D. is a Research Fellow at the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Vienna, Austria. His doctoral degree is in sociocultural anthropology with a medical anthropology specialization and a geographical focus on Pakistan. His Ph.D. project studied measles and vaccination in Sindh Province, Pakistan. Using (ill-)health as analytical entry points, and significantly informed by critical medical anthropology, he explores, analyzes, and illuminates the interplay between health, disease, structured disparities, geopolitics, and biopolitics. He emphasizes applied research to produce anthropological knowledge that can contribute to current world problems. His most recent work focuses on COVID-19 in Pakistan, as he is working as the Principal Investigator of the project, Exploring and Understanding the Impacts of COVID-19: A Qualitative Inquiry, approved by the National Bioethics Committee of Pakistan (Reference No.4-87/NBC-471-COVID-19-09/20/). Much of that work has already been published in journals of anthropology and public health. He has authored around 50 peer and non-peer-reviewed articles: published, under review, and in preparation. He is lead editor of the book Negotiating the Pandemic: Cultural, National, and Individual Constructions of COVID-19. London: Routledge, with Robbie Davis-Floyd as co-editor, forthcoming in 2022. Moreover, based on his academic orientation, he has written many op-eds in Pakistan’s leading English newspapers, e.g., Dawn. ORCID ID: 0000-0003-1659-8492.

CV as PDF

Selected Publications

• Ali, Inayat, Salma Sadique, Shahbaz Ali, and Robbi Davis-Floyd. 2021. “Birthing Between the “Traditional” and the “Modern”: Dāi Practices and Childbearing Women’s Choices during COVID-19 in Pakistan.” Frontiers in Sociology. 10.3389/fsoc.2021.622223
• Ali, Inayat. 2021. “From Normal to Viral Body: Death rituals during ordinary and extraordinary COVID-19 times in Pakistan.” Frontiers in Sociology. doi.org/10.3389/fsoc.2020.619913
• Ali, Inayat.  2020. “The COVID-19 Pandemic: Making Sense of Rumor and Fear.” Medical Anthropology 39 (5): 376-379. https://doi.org/10.1080/01459740.2020.1745481
• Ali, Inayat. 2020. “Impact of COVID-19 on vaccination programs: Adverse or positive?” Human Vaccines & Immunotherapeutics. doi.org/10.1080/21645515.2020.1787065
• Ali, Inayat. 2020. “Impacts of rumors and conspiracy theories surrounding COVID-19 on preparedness programs.” Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness: 1-15. https://doi.org/10.1017/dmp.2020.325
• Ali, Inayat, and Robbie Davis-Floyd. 2020. “The interplay of words and politics during COVID-19: Contextualizing the Universal Pandemic vocabulary.” Practicing Anthropology 42 (4). https://doi.org/10.17730/0888-4552.42.4.20

Projects and dissertations

Project

• Exploring and Understanding the Impacts of COVID-19: A Qualitative Inquiry. Approved by the National Bioethics Committee, Pakistan (reference No.4-87/NBC471-COVID-19-09/20/).

Dissertations

• Ali, Inayat. 2020. “Constructing and Negotiating Measles: The Case of Sindh Province of Pakistan.” Ph.D., Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Vienna, Austria.
• Ali, Inayat. 2011. “Cultural Construction of Health and Illness: The Case Study of a Potohari Village.” M.Phil. Qualitative, Department of Anthropology, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan.  
• Ali, Inayat. 2007. “Impacts of Modern Technology on Traditional Crafts: A Case Study of Pottery and Textile of Hala, Sindh.” M. Sc. Masters, Department of Anthropology, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan.