Basmah Arshad

Basmah Arshad is a doctoral candidate in history at the University of North Texas, where she researches diasporic reinterpretations of traditional gender, kinship, and food norms as developed within various Asian and Muslim American communities in the North Texas region during the twentieth and twenty-first century. In 2023, she graduated from the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor with a Master’s in International and Regional Studies, concentrating in Chinese Studies through the Lieberthal-Rogel Center for Chinese Studies. Her thesis was titled, "Food, Marriage, and Activism: Analyzing the Identity of the Uyghur Diaspora in Pakistan." In 2024, she earned a graduate certificate in Museum Studies from the University of Michigan, with her practicum experiences centered around contemporary archival practices of memorial museums, community museums, and special collections. Throughout her academic career, Arshad has explored topics relevant to post-colonial South Asian history and culture; modern and contemporary Chinese attitudes toward gender, sexuality, and kinship; East and South Asian borderlands history and politics; ethnic and heritage museums in the United States and elsewhere; and food as a site for transnational identity construction.