Dear Colleagues,
Scholarship is not only about producing research – it is about sustaining voices, building belonging, and challenging the structures that make too many invisible. This year has been an incredible year of transformation, and I have been determined to carry that vision forward through my writing, research, and community-centered work. I want to share some of the steps I’ve taken on that path.
This August and September, I have the opportunity to share three original research papers at the American Political Science Association (APSA) conferences:
– PolNet at Harvard/Northeastern in Cambridge, MA (August 2025)
– APSA Annual Meeting & Teaching & Learning in Vancouver, Canada (September 2025)
This research contributes to vital global conversations:
- Indigenous development programs empowering communities in Pakistan
- The invisibility of women in fragile states like Pakistan & Afghanistan
- Mental health and belonging in academia (Inclusive Pedagogy in Political Science Education)
In order to participate in these opportunities, as an independent scholar without a current institutional affiliation, I launched an educational crowdsourcing campaign.
You can learn more about this campaign here:
Rise Beyond the Margins: Empowering Inclusive Scholarship
You can find the Medium article that shares the objectives of the Campaign HERE.
A Qualitative Inquisition (Qi) newsletter edition with the details was also published. You can find that HERE.
A more comprehensive proposal on the project for conference and ongoing research can be found in this document HERE.
Earlier this month, I participated in the first conference and had a very successful experience.
You can find some of the relevant reflections here on Medium and Substack:
Substack: On the Road to Rising: From Self-Empowerment to Community Empowerment
Medium: From Self-Empowerment to Community Empowerment
One other exciting update… I’ve also continued to grow Painting Heals, my arts-based initiative that bridges creativity, scholarship, and healing. What began as a way to honor resilience through art has become a fundraiser that supports both my academic journey and broader causes rooted in justice and belonging. You can learn more and explore the gallery here: Painting Heals. Please also visit the About the Artist page to learn more behind the motivation!
I recently shared an update in my Qi Newsletter, reflecting on that initiative:
A New Season for Art, Healing, Advocacy, and Scholarship
To this date, I have over 100 Medium articles, and I wrote about building the legacy of writing and planting the seeds in an article earlier this summer. I shared the journey here:
On Building Legacy in Writing: My 100th Medium Article
I look forward to continuing my public scholarship there as well as on Substack, while advancing my other scholarly publications.
On Qi, I have written extensively on various qualitative methods, journalism, belonging, storytelling, and reflexivity, and this year I’ve started a Mini Field Note Series after my first experience completing the pilgrimage to Makkah and Madinah, Saudi Arabia. I plan to continue the series after the APSA conference and finish these reflections before the end of the year.
As I shared on my educational crowdfunding campaign page, I am carrying a new identity with me in academic spaces, and after two decades in higher education. Navigating this has been challenging, but I hope to document the journey in the process as part of my efforts on emotional and critical reflexivity, as a qualitative methods scholar.
I am excited to be attending the APSA conference this week with multiple objectives, including sharing my research, speaking to exhibitors and book publishers, networking with and learning from other scholars, attending other presentations, and staying proactive in my academic publications and job market.
As an independent scholar, I am raising funds to cover the expenses. But this is more than just a fundraiser to get to the conferences. In another future article on Medium, I plan to share an intellectual justification for crowdfunding. While unconventional, I believe this demonstrates creativity, resilience, resourcefulness, tenacity, and determination while in the academic job market.
I am proud of the initiative, and I find it crucial to honor all the different voices of the communities I represent. Studying poverty alleviation, I personally have experienced a need to request support through hardship, and I believe my personal experiences enrich my work even more.
The campaign ultimately became a call to invest in scholarship that honors justice, equity, and global inclusion, both for the scholar, alongside the communities the scholar (and their research) represent.
Please feel free to review the campaign page for more details about the mission, alongside the papers, conferences, and budget. There, you will also find my campaign video! From the video, I hope you can sense the sincerity behind the larger mission, purpose, and message of this campaign, which is why even sharing and engaging means a great deal.
APSA is right around the corner, but my work is in progress. After the conference, I’ll still be on the academic job market, continuing to write, revise, and push forward my book projects. I have a strong and active research agenda. I also have several articles under review, and I look forward to sharing updates as soon as I know more!
That’s why the campaign doesn’t end with APSA. It remains open because this effort is about more than one conference; it is about sustaining the ongoing work of an indie scholar navigating a transition with resilience, creativity, and vision. Every bit of support matters, not only financially but symbolically – as an affirmation that voices like mine are worth sustaining.
Please be on the lookout for another video and blog update shortly after the conference, about being on the market.
Thank you for reading, for helping amplify underrepresented voices in Academia, and for keeping vital research visible in these spaces!
The past year has been a year of crossing thresholds – of rising beyond margins, transforming obstacles into openings, and turning creativity into a bridge between scholarship and community. I am excited to share the progress and momentum that continue to shape my academic journey.
It has been a long, arduous, and difficult journey. But I will continue to remain positive, hopeful, and excited about the next steps in this challenging path. I sincerely appreciate the solidarity and community behind our efforts to make modest contributions through our work and passion!
I also hope that my resilience and tenacity can inspire other early-career scholars, writers, artists, professionals and academics, facing similar challenges, to stay the course in fighting for their dreams, especially if there is a purpose behind it that is beyond the self. I look forward to sharing other relevant content in the coming weeks that clarifies the mission.
Thank you, and I appreciate your connection and community!
In Solidarity and Peace,
Dr. Elsa T. Khwaja
*******
Thank you for reading and engaging!
Visit my page for my educational crowdsourcing campaign HERE.
Note: While I’m preparing for APSA 2025, this campaign is about more than one conference. It will remain open to help sustain my ongoing work as an independent scholar – from the job market to articles, book projects, and research.
You can learn more about my portfolio life HERE.
Feel free to subscribe to my academic newsletter, The Qualitative Inquisition (Qi), for insights on all things qualitative in the social sciences.
Your support helps me continue writing, reflecting, painting, and resisting! Thank you, I wish you well on your academic, writing, and artistic journey!
