Professor Baharul Islam has been teaching and researching in the areas of Communications, Law, Education, Films, Media, Public Policy and Governance for more than twenty-five years. At present he is the Professor & Chair, Communications Area at the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Kashipur which is one of the top business schools set up by the Government of India. He also serves as the Chairperson of the Centre of Excellence in Public Policy and Government at the Institute. He was the Dean of IIM Kashipur during 2019-2021. Starting his career as a faculty at the National Institute of Technology, Silchar, India in 1994, he went on to teach at a number of universities abroad. Between 2002 and 2012 he served on several international assignments with UN agencies like UNESCO, UNECA, and UNESCAP. He was the Chairman and CEO of the South Asian Regional Gateway during 2007-2012).

In 2020 he was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland. Prof Islam also serves as Fellow at the US India Policy Institute in Washington DC and in 2015 he was selected as an International Fellow at the King Abdullah International Centre for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue in Vienna. During 2016-2018 he was on deputation as a Fellow at the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla (2016-2018) where he worked on Literature of the Northeast.

He holds three masters’ degrees: LLM in Telecom and Information Technology Laws from the University of Strathclyde (UK), MA (English) from Aligarh Muslim University, India and MBA from IK Gujral Technical University, India. He did two PhDs: one in English from Tezpur University and another in Social Work (Transitional Justice) from Assam Don Bosco University. He did his post-Doctoral research at the Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok. Besides he has obtained B.Ed. degree specializing in Educational Planning and Administration. He has recently completed his dissertation on Influence of New Media on English language for a D.Litt. from Kumaun University. Dr Islam is a recipient of the United Kingdom Telecom Academy Fellowship (2004), the Andrew Towl Endowment scholarship at the Harvard Business School (2013) and the IPDET Fellowship at the University of Bern (Switzerland) in 2018.

He is presently on summer break from Indian Institute of Management Kashipur while Visiting Professor at the Department of Media and Communications at LSE.