Ijaz, Aqsa

Aqsa Ijaz specialises in classical Persian poetry and studies its reception in mediaeval and early modern North India. Born and raised in Lahore, Pakistan, Aqsa is trained in Indian classical music and specialises in the vocal forms of thumri and ghazal. As a scholar of Persian, Urdu, and Punjabi, Aqsa’s doctoral research focuses on the reception of the 12th century Persian poet Nizami Ganjavi and examines the formative role of Nizami’s poetry in shaping the language of romantic love in premodern North India. Besides her scholarly work, Aqsa is an essayist and a translator and writes for various international publications such as The World Literature Today, The Herald, and the Los Angeles Review of Books. Aqsa is committed to sharing academic research in the field of South Asian Humanities with audiences across the globe for which she serves on the editorial board of The Marginalia Review of Books in Los Angeles. Currently, she teaches Urdu at the Department of Language Studies and is co-manager of The Global Past Research Initiative at the University of Toronto Mississauga.