Position/Status

Assistant Research Professor

E-mail Address

ln369@cam.ac.uk

Phone

+ 44 (0)1223

Qualifications

• MSc in Development Management (London School of Economics and Political Science)
• PhD in Education (Institute of Education, University College London)

Membership of Professional Bodies/Associations

• Member: Comparative and International Education Society (CIES)
• Member: The Maple Advisory Group
• Member: British Association for South Asian Studies (BASAS)
• Member: British Association for in International and Comparative Education (BAICE)
• Advisory Board: LUMS LPRI Society

Profile

Dr Laraib Niaz is an Assistant Research Professor at the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge and a PDRA at Gonville and Caius College. Her research examines different dimensions of inclusion and exclusion in education including religion, gender, disability and conflict.

She currently serves as the Gender and Social Inclusion advisor for the What Works Hub for Global Education (WWHGE) along with Prof Pauline Rose. She has been involved in several evaluations of the FCDO funded Girls Education Challenge, analysing how large scale programmes reach the most marginalised girls. She has been an inclusive education consultant at the World Bank and holds a PhD from Institute of Education, University College London where her ethnographic research focused on the role of religion in classrooms in Pakistan.

She has extensive experience in supervising students, and has been a part of the teaching faculty at Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) and University College London (UCL).

Academic Area/Links

• Cambridge Network for Disability and Education Research (CaNDER)
• REAL Centre: Research for Equitable Access and Learning

Research Topics

• Inclusive Education
• Disability, Gender and Religion
• Construction of ‘Self’ and ‘other’
• National Identity Construction
• Decolonising research practices
• Education amidst conflict and crises

Current Research Project(s)

• Evaluation of the Girls Education Challenge Fund II: Disability and Sustainability project
• TASO Evaluation Support for interventions on Disability- LSE-UOC.
• Gender and Social Inclusion in What Works Hub for Global Education
• Scoping studies for DARE-RC Pakistan
• Effects of attacks on education in Gaza and West Bank

Principal and Recent Publications

Malik, M; Singal N; Niaz, L. (2025). Unpacking the tensions between teacher practices and beliefs: insights from government schools in Pakistan. Teacher Development.

Niaz, L. (2024). Teaching India Pakistan's relations: Teachers attitudes, practices and agency. National Identities.pp 1-2.

Niaz, L and Anand K. (2024). Populist visions and exclusions: Analysing educational policy reforms in India and Pakistan in Exploring education and democratisation in South Asia: Research, policy and practice. Palgrave Macmillan.

Niaz, L; Chaudhary, C.H; Anand, K. (2023). Opportunities and Challenges of Tele Schooling: Lessons from Pakistan. In Rethinking Education in the Context of Post-Pandemic South Asia: Challenges and Possibilities. Routledge.

Niaz, L: (2023), Pandemics, Media and Religion: Engendering the Narrative of the ‘other’ in Media Narratives During the Corona Pandemic: The Asian Experience Currently in publication. Routledge India.

Niaz, L.; Anand, K.; Panjwani, F.; Lall, M. (2023). Religion and the construction of National Identity through Textbooks. In Bloomsbury Handbook of Schools and Religion.

Niaz, L. (2022). God in the Classroom: Exploring the Role of Religion in Five Case Study Schools in Lahore. PhD Thesis.

Niaz, L.; Anand, K. (2021). University Spaces as Agents of National Belonging: Analysing the Hidden Curriculum of Public Universities’ Campuses in India and Pakistan. Educ. Sci, 11.

Anand, K., & Niaz, L. (2022). The Precarious State of Academic Freedom in Higher Education: The Case of India and Pakistan. In Research in the Social Scientific Study of Religion (RSSSR). BRILL. Volume 32.