Shafqat Hussain is trained in social and political ecology and is interested in understanding how human societies and environment shape each other. He is particularly interested in how geo-political and intellectual changes effect the perception of nature, and human society’s relationship with it. Shafqat’s research is based in South and Central Asia, focusing on how local marginal communities and outside players interact with the environment of the region, and what role the region has in world history.  Shafqat’s teaching philosophy is based on evoking a sense of curiosity among the student which inspires them to be effective learners. For this reason he believes that learning involves not simply seeking answers to difficult questions, but rather insisting on asking challenging and intriguing questions. For Shafqat classroom teaching should, as far as possible, be grounded in real world experience, to which end he endeavours to supplement his teaching in the classroom with relevant field visits.

Books:

• Hussain, Shafqat. The Snow Leopard and the Goat: Politics of Conservation in the Western Himalayas. University of Washington Press (2019).
• Hussain, Shafqat. Remoteness and Modernity: Transformation and Continuity in Northern Pakistan. Yale University Press. New Haven (2015).

Selected Articles and Book Chapters:

• Harms, E. Hussain, S. Schneiderman, S. "Remote and Edgy: New Takes on Old Anthropological Themes." Hau: Journal of Ethnographic Theory 4, no.1 (2014): 361-381.
• Hussain, Shafqat. "The Nature of Conservation: Conflict and Articulation in Northern Pakistan." In Dispatches From Pakistan, edited by Madiha R. Tahir, Qalandar Bux Memon, and Vijay Prashad, 287-299. New Delhi: LeftWord Books, 2012.
• Rosen, T. Hussain S., Mohammad G., Jackson R., Janecka J., and Michel S. "Reconciling Sustainable Development of Mountain Communities With Large Carnivore Conservation." Mountain Research and Development 32, no,. 3 (2012): 286-293.
• Hussain, Shafqat. "Forms of Predation: Tiger and Markhor Hunting in Colonial Governance." Modern Asian Studies 46, no. 5 (2012): 1212-1238.
• Hussain, Shafqat. "The Pelt Smuggler." In Snow Leopard: Stories from the Roof of the World, edited by Don Hunter, 75-82. Boulder: University of Colorado Press, 2012.
• Anwar, B., R. Jackson, M. S. Nadeem, J. E. Janecka, S. Hussain, M. A. Beg, G. Mohammad, and M. Qayyum. "Food Habits of the Snow Leopard Panthera uncia (Schreber, 1775) in Baltistan, Northern Pakistan." European Journal of Wildlife Research 57, no. 5 (2011): 1077-1083.
• Hussain, Shafqat. "Sports-hunting, Fairness and Colonial Identity: Collaboration and Subversion in the Northwestern Frontier Region of the British Indian Empire." Conservation and Society 8, no. 2 (2010): 112-126.
• Hussain, Shafqat. "Religious Sovereignty and Transnationalism in a Nation-State: Post-colonial Identities in Northern Pakistan." Tsanta: Swiss Journal of Ethnology 14 (2009): 66-75. 

• National Geographic Society’s Emerging Explorer Award (class of 2009), 2008.
• Associate Laureate Award, Rolex Award for Enterprise, 2006.
• Award for Doctoral Dissertation Support, Teresa Heinz Scholars for Environmental Research, 2005.