Pervez Amirali Hoodbhoy, born in Karachi (1950), resides in Islamabad where he taught physics for 47 years (1973-2021) at Quaid-e-Azam University. From 2013-2020 he was Distinguished Professor of Physics and Mathematics at Forman Christian College-University, Lahore. Earlier, for short periods he was visiting professor at MIT, Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Maryland, and a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Washington.
Hoodbhoy graduated from MIT with undergraduate degrees in electrical engineering and mathematics (1973), a master's in solid state physics (1973), and a PhD degree in nuclear physics (1978). He is a sponsor of The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, a member of the Permanent Monitoring Panel of the World Federation of Scientists, and founder-director of the Eqbal Ahmad Centre for Public Education. Since 1988 he has headed Mashal Books in Lahore and leads a major translation effort to produce books in Urdu that promote modern thought, human rights, and emancipation of women.
In 1968 he won the Baker Award for Electronics, and in 1984 the Abdus Salam Prize for Mathematics. In 2003 he was awarded UNESCO's Kalinga Prize for the popularization of science. In 2010 he received the Joseph A. Burton Award from the American Physical Society and the Jean Meyer Award from Tufts University. In 2011, he was included in the list of 100 most influential global thinkers by Foreign Policy magazine. During 2013-2017 he was a member of the UN Secretary General's Advisory Board on Disarmament Affairs. In 2019 he received the honorary doctor of law degree from the University of British Columbia.
Dr. Hoodbhoy’s best known book (1990) is titled Islam and Science – Religious Orthodoxy and the Battle for Rationality, translated into 8 languages. His current book, Pakistan: Origins, Identity & Future is with the publishers. He is also a well-known commentator on Pakistani TV channels on political and social issues. As an activist against nuclear weapons in South Asia, he has written and spoken extensively for their abolition. His documentary films include, “Pakistan and India under the Nuclear Shadow” and “Crossing the Lines – Kashmir, Pakistan, India”.
Lecture I: How Islam is changing across the Muslim world
In UAE unmarried men and women may live together, alcohol restrictions are gone, and honor killings will be judged a crime just as any other. A once deeply conservative Saudi Arabia has loosened up but in Afghanistan the hand-chopping, openly misogynist Taliban are back in power. And which way is Pakistan – my country – going? In this lecture I will connect different current trends – political, social, and philosophical – with those which emerged in the early centuries of Islam.
Lecture II: China, Pakistan and expansion of the Belt Road Initiative
A non-ideological Beijing Consensus that purports to be neo-liberalism with Chinese characteristics is reshaping South Asia. Pakistan has long been fully invested in the idea with over $60 billion of Chinese investment so far. After the Taliban victory it is seeking to draw Afghanistan into the arrangement as well. Will it work and how far can it go? I will assess the impact of the Chinese Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) from available data.