Dr. Ishrat Jahan Khan

Dr Ishrat Khan is an Associate Professor at the Department of Women and Gender Studies, University of Dhaka. Ishrat has been teaching in this field for more than a decade. She was awarded the Commonwealth Scholarship to pursue her doctorate in International Development at the University of Sussex in England, the world's leading institution in development studies. Her research examines the diverse meanings and manifestations of economic empowerment in the private lives of middle-class professional women in Dhaka, Bangladesh. It explores the disjuncture between women’s earning potential and its transformation into their agency over choices and decisions in everyday relationships, including marriage and intimate lives.

Ishrat started her career as a development researcher at ActionAid International. Later, she moved to academia following her postgraduate degree in gender studies, which she completed with the Erasmus Mundus GEMMA scholarship.

In addition to teaching, Ishrat has a decade-long experience of conducting community-based research. As a feminist scholar and researcher, she is primarily interested in issues relating to gender and development, including women's empowerment, financial inclusion, violence against women and girls (VAW&G), and sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR). She has collaborated on several research projects both in Bangladesh and abroad, including with Share-Net International, NWO-WOTRO (Dutch Government-funded SRHR research), Equimundo (US-based MenCare Project), UNDP, WHO, and Canterbury Christ Church University, UK, to name a few. She is currently working as the ASPM on a World Bank-UGC-funded two-year research project to develop a holistic approach to preventing gender-based violence on university campuses in Bangladesh.

Ishrat also performed many administrative responsibilities, such as student advisor, student mentor, and house tutor, both at the University of Dhaka and the University of Sussex. Moreover, she served Channel I (one of the popular, mainstream private television channels in Bangladesh) as a news presenter for more than a decade.