MsSana Amjad

Sana’s research centres on the intersections of gender, crisis, migration and everyday life. She is particularly interested in how gender roles and relations are maintained, adjusted and negotiated when people move from crisis-affected regions and establish their lives in new social, economic and institutional settings. Her work examines paid work, domestic labour, caregiving, decision-making, family obligations, community participation and separation from extended-family networks.

Her current research explores the everyday lives of Swati women and men in Australia, particularly Melbourne. It considers how migration and employment conditions reshape household responsibilities, as well as what place histories of terrorism and continuing connections with flood-affected Swat hold in participants’ present lives. Her approach does not assume that crisis or migration produces uniform transformation, instead attending to uneven patterns of continuity, adaptation and change.

Sana’s work engages feminist, postcolonial and decolonial scholarship alongside anthropological approaches to migration, crisis and everyday life. She is especially interested in power, patriarchy, kinship, transnational relationships and the ways gendered responsibilities are organised across households and communities.

Beyond her doctoral research, Sana has written and presented on women’s empowerment in rural, patriarchal and conflict-affected settings, girls’ education, cultural and economic inequalities, and the role of women’s jirgas and grassroots organisations in advancing gender justice. She also maintains research interests in digital pedagogy, graduate employability and curriculum innovation, particularly how teaching practices and professional development can support students’ academic and career pathways.