Sara Kazmi is a scholar, translator, and protest singer. From January 2024, she will be based the the Department of English at the University of Pennsylvania as Assistant Professor of Literature and Culture of the Global South.

Her research looks at poetry and drama from 1970s Punjab, in particular focusing on the re-working of oral, folk genres as a literary mode for subverting the bordering logics of the Indian and Pakistani state, and for critiquing the boundaries drawn by caste, patriarchy and institutional religion in the region. Sara has been involved extensively with the Sangat which is an independent group of artists, writers and musicians engaged in reading and revisiting the Punjab’s literary, musical and theatrical traditions. She is also a student of Indian classical music, blending ragas with folk tunes in her renditions of classical and contemporary Punjabi poetry.

Her academic work has appeared in the South Asia Multi-disciplinary Journal (SAMAJ), the Journal of Socialist Studies, and the South Asia Chronicle, while her literary criticism and long-form writing has been published by the Herald magazine, Dawn Books and Authors, The News on Sunday, and Poetry Birmingham.