Profile
Syeda ShahBano Ijaz is a candidate for the Ph.D. in Political Science at UC San Diego and specializes in the political economy of developing countries. Through her research, she develops a theory of access provision to foreign aid-funded projects and its consequences for democratic accountability and representation. Specifically, she focuses on gaps in last-mile access to foreign aid-funded social security programs in Pakistan. Ijaz’s research has received support from the Center of Peace and Security Studies, Friends of the International Center, the International Institute, and the American Institute of Pakistan Studies. Ijaz has an M.A. in Politics from NYU and an M.Sc. in Economics for Development from Oxford University, where she was awarded the Commonwealth Scholarship. She has a B.Sc. (Honors) in Economics from the Lahore University of Management Sciences, where she received two gold medals for overall excellence in the undergraduate program and for the best student in Economics. As a first-generation immigrant, an American Muslim of color, and a graduate student parent, Ijaz is committed to flattening the academic playing field for minority students – particularly those who bear the intersectional burden of discrimination. At UCSD, she serves as the graduate student liaison for her department’s Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Taskforce. She is also the lead convener for UCSD’s Women in Political Science (WIPS) group and mentors prospective graduate students from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) as part of the UCSD-Spelman-Morehouse summer program. Ijaz’s research probes the agency of aid beneficiaries and, in doing so, seeks to decolonize the study of foreign aid by shifting analytical focus from donors to the targets of international development. As a Bouchet Scholar, Ijaz aims to cultivate interuniversity partnerships that address the leakage of minority scholars from the academic pipeline. Her ultimate goal is to work towards improving diversity and representation in the professoriate.
