Dr Mubashar Hasan

Dr Mubashar Hasan is a Bangladesh born academic and social justice activist. The humanitarian has gone from political detainee to globally-recognised expert on matters of countering violent extremism, freedom of speech and authoritarianism.

Working as a consultant and an adjunct fellow at the University of Western Sydney’s Humanitarian and Development Research Initiative (HADRI), Mubashar now calls Australia home permanently. The newly established HADRI pursues research that interrogates the international response to disaster and conflict, as well as the intersectionality between health, socioeconomics and politics of emergencies.

And at the consultancy firm Mubashar co-founded, Pyrmont Consultants, he is presently engaged on a number of projects for high-profile clients.

The United Nations Office for Genocide Prevention and Responsibility to Protect has Mubashar working on implications of hate speech in several Asian countries. Meanwhile a German think tank Global Public Policy Institute and a Japanese think tank Sasakawa Peace Foundation contracted Hasan for projects related to academic freedom and countering extremism.

His lived experience with authoritarian regime is something he says academics and policy makers in this space typically lack. “Most parts of the world aren’t democratic. It’s really important to talk about that from social justice perspectives,” he said.

He went back to Bangladesh after completing his PhD in Griffith and inspired many to defend rights, free speech and democracy through his works and engagements.

Employed at a local university in 2017, Mubashar was subjected to ‘enforced disappearance’ in his home country of Bangladesh.

The impact of his work was evident by that time as local and international civil society organizations including Pen America, Amnesty International, National Academy of Science, Engineering and Medicine, Scholars At Risk, and friends and colleagues from Australia stood up against it.

His students, teachers and colleagues formed human chain in Dhaka University with facemasks printed with his face to demand his release from unlawful detention.

Mubashar’s stint at the Oslo University in Norway where he was working as a research fellow, following this tumultuous period in Bangladesh, resulted in several publications including journal articles and book chapter on free speech and academic freedom including his forthcoming co-edited book, Masks of Authoritarianism: Hegemony, Power and Public Life in Bangladesh. The book deals with how people continue to lead everyday lives under heightened authoritarianism.

“Once this book is published, it will contribute to our collective knowledge because most people who study politics have no lived experience of authoritarianism,” Mubashar said.

He says he’s driven to pursue these topics by his principles: human rights, democracy and countering violent extremism. “Appreciation of living in a democratic society is really important to me,” Mubashar said , “ democratic society supports human dignity. I feel there is an increasing underappreciation, in the current climate, about the significance of upholding ideals of social justice and democratic values,” he said.

“Many times, the idea of business supersedes or undermines these core values.”

Mubashar was working in communications at Oxfam and as a journalist for world’s largest humanitarian news organization The New Humanitarian when he decided to do his PhD at Griffith University’s School of Government and International Relations.

“I was sent to people who were homeless because of sudden flash flood or cyclones. I saw people had to travel for hours under scorching sun just to have a glass of pure drinking water,” Mubashar said.

This eye-opening experience motivated Mubashar to pursue a career driving policy, but not everyone in Mubashar’s life shared his vision.

“Many of my friends, even my parents, said ‘why? are you crazy? are you leaving this permanent job to study? I mean, how long are you gonna study before you can live your life or settle down?’,” Mubashar said. “But I wanted to develop myself and my understanding of the world,” he said.

Mubashar’s desire to better himself through further study ultimately proved very rewarding. The Political Science and Government PhD Mubashar completed at Griffith was published as a book, Islam and Politics in Bangladesh: Followers of Ummah by Palgrave Macmillan.

“I am so proud of my PhD,” Mubashar said. “Turning the PhD project into a book is one of the things I am also very proud of in my career,” he said.

Mubashar credits his PhD with teaching him resilience, improved writing skills, critical thinking and the ability to publish academic papers. He says the PhD opened many doors for him in terms of research positions, which he pursued eagerly. He also very much enjoyed the ‘coffee and cake meetings’.

“These were organised quite informally by Professor Haig Patapan,” Mubashar said. “We’d all come together to share our challenges and achievements,” he said. “That was a really nice, interesting thing I hadn’t experienced before.”

Mubashar’s wide-reaching policy and humanitarian career has had its ups and downs, but ultimately he strives to make meaningful contribution. “It’s really worth doing because you make an impact on people’s lives,” Mubashar said.

He is now serving as a member at the Research Advisory Council of the RESOLVE Network , housed at the United States’ Institute of Peace and as a research member at the Addressing Violent Extremism and Radicalisation to Terrorism Research Network at Deakin University.