Ph.D. Candidate
Zain R. Mian is interested in contemporary debates on World Literature, the sociology of literary institutions and forms, as well as historiographical theory, genre theory, and narratology more broadly. Zain’s Masters research project, “The Reluctant Comparatists: Towards A Reconceptualization of Pakistani Literature,” was awarded the Postgraduate Essay Prize by the Postcolonial Studies Association. In 2021, he received the Dean's Award for Distinguished Teaching and the Penn Presidential Fellowship, which recognizes "the most exceptional scholars from across all of Penn’s PhD programs.” He is currently working on a dissertation that explores the literary and artistic culture of Lahore across Urdu, Hindi, Punjabi, and English.