Center of Excellence in Higher Education
The First Private University in Bangladesh

Dr. Ishrat Zakia Sultana

Assistant Professor, and

Member, Center for Peace Studies (CPS)

Member of Center for Migration Studies (CMS)

PhD in Sociology, York University, Canada

Master of Arts in Child and Youth Studies, Brock University, Canada

Masters in Women's Studies, The University of Dhaka, Bangladesh

Masters in Public Administration, The University of Dhaka, Bangladesh

Phone: +880-2-55668200 Ext: 6355
Email: ishrat.sultana@northsouth.edu
Office: NAC 908, North South University, Plot 15, Block B, Bashundhara, Dhaka 1229, Bangladesh.

Dr. Ishrat Zakia Sultana is Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science and Sociology at NSU. She received her PhD in Sociology from York University, Toronto, Canada, where she worked as a Reasearch Assistant and a Teaching Assistant for several years. Her research interests include refugees, citizenship, identity, children, gender, policy and governance, and Asia. Her doctoral research focuses on identity construction of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh. 

Dr. Sultana holds an Honours and a Masters in Public Administration from the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh. Later she received a Masters in Women's Studies from the same institution, and an M.A. in Child and Youth Studies from Brock University, St. Catharines, Canada. Before pursuing doctoral studies, she spent several years in the government and development sector of Bangladesh. Dr. Sultana worked with FAO, UNDP and UNICEF Bangladesh, offering technical and strategic advice to the concerned government and development partners on empowerment of disadvantaged people that includes the coastal fishing communities, street children and children without parental care in Bangladesh. She also closely worked with the Ministry of Social Welfare of Bangladesh in designing and organizing training on proactive approaches to child friendly social work for the government and NGO personnel.

Dr. Sultana loves reading, traveling, and meditation.

  1. Siddiqi, B., Sultana, I. S. and Haque, Sk. T. M. (ed.) (2023). Life in the time of Covid - 19: Perspectives and Realities in Bangladesh (Eds.). Published by UPL.
  2. Sultana, I. Z. (2023). Division Through Registration? Rohingya Refugees' Stratified Lives in Bangladeshi Camps. In The Displaced Rohingya: A Tale of a Vulnerable Community. Routledge. Edited by Sk. T. Haque, B. A. Siddiqi, and M. Rahman. Routledge.
  3. Sultana, I. Z. and Harun, A. (2023). The Rohingya: A Historical Overview. In The Displaced Rohingya: A Tale of a Vulnerable Community. Edited by Sk. T. Haque, B. A. Siddiqi, and M. Rahman. Routledge. Routledge.
  4. Sultana, I. Z. and Bulbul Ashraf Siddiqi (ed). (2021). রোহিঙ্গাঃ ভূ-রাজনীতির জটিলতায় নৃগোষ্ঠী থেকে শরণার্থী. Published by Prothoma.
  5. Sultana, Ishrat Zakia. (2019). “Rohingyas’ education, social relations and governmentality in Bangladesh.”. Journal of Identity, Culture & Politics: An Afro-Asian Dialogue, Senegal.
  6. Book review in Refuge: Canada’s Journal on Refugees. Myanmar’s Enemy Within: Buddhist Violence and the Making of a Muslim “Other.” By Francis Wade. London: Zed Books, 2017. Volume 35 (1), 2019.
  7. Sultana, I. Z. (2016). The Exploitation of Women Workers: Unveiling Capitalism in Bangladeshi Garment Industries. In N. Mahtab, S, Parker, F. Kabir, T. Haque, A. Sabur, & A.S.M. Sowad (Eds.), Revealing Gender Inequalities and Perceptions in South Asian Countries through Discourse Analysis. USA: IGI Global.
  8. Sultana, I. Z. (2014). Unaccompanied Minors and Youth in Canada: Interventions and Challenging Contexts. In D. Morgan, E. Zinck, & B. O’Bright (Eds.), Intersections of Research and Practice: Children, Youth and Security Graduate Symposium. Centre for Foreign Policy Studies, Dalhousie University, Halifax.
  9. Iqbal, M., Sultana, I. Z., & Ahmed, M. (2012). Shishu odhikar shomuha: Oitihashik biborton, a translation from English to Bengali of Child Rights: The Historical Evolution by Ghassan Khalil. Dhaka, Bangladesh: IDL Trust Publication.
  10. Sultana, I. Z. (1999). Sustaining the distressed. In I. Ahmed (Ed.), Living with floods: An exercise in alternatives. Dhaka, Bangladesh: University Press.

Faculty of Graduate Studies Scholarship, York University, 2013-2019

Ontario Graduate Scholarship (OGS), Canada, 2016

Recognition of Merit, Department of Women's Studies, The University of Dhaka, Bangladesh, 2005

PhD in Sociology, York University, Canada

Masters in Child and Youth Studies, Brock University, Canada

Masters in Women's Studies, The University of Dhaka, Bangladesh

Masters in Public Administration, The University of Dhaka, Bangladesh

Course Coordinator of the Certificate Course on the Rohingya Crisis, June - September 2021

It was a collaborative project between CPS of NSU and the Human Rights Practice Program at the University of Arizona

Coordinator, International Conference on Rohingya Crisis in Bangladesh: Challenges and Sustainable Solutions. North South University, Dhaka, Bangladesh. July 2019

 

Teaching Assistant, 2013- 2019

Courses taught: Introduction to Sociology, Research Methodology

Department of Sociology, York University, Cadana

 

Teaching Assistant, 2011-2013

Course taught: Introduction to Child and Youth Studies

Department of Child and Youth Studies, Brock Unviersity, Canada

 

Academic conference presentations

1) What's up, gig workers? A situational analysis of challenges and opportunities of gig workers in Bangladesh. 56th Conference of Canadian Sociological Association. York University, Canada. June 2023.

2) 'Education is not for Rohingya refugees: An exclusionary project of denying human rights'. International Conference on Rohingya Crisis in Bangladesh: Challenges and Sustainable Solutions. North South University, Dhaka, Bangladesh. July 2019.

3) Discussant on the Economic Impacts of Rohingya cisis in the International Conference on Rohingya Crisis in Bangladesh: Challenges and Sustainable Solutions. North South University, Dhaka, Bangladesh. July 2019. 

4) ‘Rohingya Identity: Perplexed by statelessness?’ The IXth edition of the Race, Ethnicity, and Place Conference, the Mexican American Cultural Center in Austin, Texas, USA. October 2018.

 5) ‘Rohingya Refugees in Bangladesh: A Story of Stratification and Inequality’. 2nd International Conference on Rohingya: Politics, Ethnic Cleansing and Uncertainty. The University of Dhaka, Bangladesh. September 2018.

 6) ‘Rohingya identity and what factored into the current genocide’. United South Asians at York (USAY), Toronto, Canada, April 2018.

 7) ‘The Social Relations and Networks on Rohingya Refugees’ Education Attainment’. Canadian Association for Refugees and Forced Migration (CARFMS), University of Victoria, Canada, May 2017.

 8) ‘Neither an insider nor an outsider, but ‘a guest’: they shape your positionality’. The 29th Ethnographic and Qualitative Research Conference (EQRC), Las Vegas, USA, January 2017.

 9) ‘The exploitation of women workers: Unveiling capitalism in Bangladeshi garment industries’. The 3rd International Conference on Social Sciences Research (ICSSR), Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, June 2015.

 10) ‘Tolerance and security for Burmese refugees: A comparative analysis of geopolitical contexts in Bangladeshi and Thai borders’. The 39th annual conference of the Social Science History Association, Toronto, Canada, November 2014.

 11) ‘Myanmar refugees: Statelessness and lack of citizenship in Bangladesh’. The Conference of the Canadian Sociological Association (CSA), Brock University, St. Catharines, Canada, May 2014.

 12) ‘Rootless Identities? Statelessness and Access to Basic Entitlements Amongst Rohingya Refugees in Bangladesh’. The conference on ‘Changing Vistas: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on the Asia Pacific’, Institute of Asian Research, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada, April 2014.

13) ‘Risk and security of unaccompanied minors in Ontario: The urgency of a follow up policy’. York Student Graduate Association symposium, York University, Toronto, Canada, March 2014.

14) ‘Unaccompanied minors and youth in Canada: Challenging contexts of social and legal services’. The Graduate Student Research Symposium on ‘Children, Youth, and Security: Intersections of Research and Practice’, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada, March 2014.

15) “Orchids’ identity: non-citizenship status of stateless Rohingya refugees”. The Critical Approaches to South Asian Studies (CASAS), York University, Toronto, Canada, January 2014.

16) 'Unaccompanied minors in Canada: How service provisions affect their lives' in the 'Mapping the New Knowledge' Conference at Brock University, St. Catharines, Canada, April 2013.

Research Assistant, Department of Sociology, York University, Canada, 2014-2019

Teaching Assistant, Department of Sociology, York University, Canada, 2013-2019

Research Assistant, Department of Child and Youth Studies, Brock University, Canada, 2012-2013

Teaching Assistant, Department of Child and Youth Studies, Brock University, Canada, 2011-2013

National Expert, United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF), Dhaka, Bangladesh: 2007-2010

National Expert, United Nations Development Program (UNDP), Dhaka, Bangladesh: 2005-2007

National Expert, Food and Agriculture Organizaiton (FAO), Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh: 2003-2005

Executive Officer (Commercial and Public Relations), Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation (National Tourism Organization), Dhaka, Bangladesh: 2000-2003

Sociology

Gender and Governance 

Research Methods

Member, Canadian Sociological Association (CSA)

Member of Center for Migration Studies (CMS)

Member, Center for Peace Studies (CPS)

Coordinator, Center for Peace Studies (CPS), 2020-2021

Refugees, Citizenship, Identity, Children, Policy and governance, and South Asia.

 

Ongoing research:

A collaborative research with the University of Waterloo on a New Frontiers in Research Fund (NFRFR), Canada, entitled, “Economic Recovery Policies for Sustainable and Equitable Digital School Teaching and Tutoring in Canada and Bangladesh”, 2023-2025.   

Research projects:

1. Education policy recommendations for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh

Dec 2019-Mar 2020

Funded by ADSP (Asia Displacement Solutions Platform)

 

2. Education in Bangladesh without legal identity: How do some Rohingya refugees make it possible?

2019-2020

Funded by CTRG NSU

 

3. Impacts of COVID-19 on the employment of the female workers in the RMG sector in Bangladesh

2020-2021 

Funded by CTRG NSU

 

4. Bureaucracy and Development in Bangladesh: An exploratory Study

2022

Funded by CTRG NSU