Supervisor: Robin Mansell
Research Topic: Constructing media power: post-Taliban media development in Afghanistan
Sarah Kamal earned a Bachelor's of Mathematics from the University of Waterloo then worked on social development practice, policy, and research in Canada, Nicaragua, Uganda, India, and Iran. Her interests turned towards media systems after a trip into Taliban-controlled Afghanistan in 2001. She began conducting independent research and volunteer work with local groups, including helping launch a women's radio station in western Afghanistan. She also coordinated participatory team research on Afghan refugee youth in Iran for the Oxford Refugee Studies Centre, promoted gender equality in Afghan media for UNIFEM, and set up a multi-million dollar CIDA-funded aid project for Rights and Democracy. She was chief editor of the National Action Plan for the Women of Afghanistan, a 10-year policy platform for the Afghan Ministry of Women's Affairs to improve the status of Afghan women that has recently been approved by the Afghan cabinet. Sarah holds an MSc in Comparative Media Studies from MIT, and has written for Oxford Analytica, the UN Chronicle, and Oxfam's Gender and Development journal. She is currently a Trudeau Scholar.
Contact: s.kamal@lse.ac.uk|