Amna Qayyum

Amna Qayyum is Assistant Professor of History and Women's and Gender Studies at the University of Georgia. She is a scholar of global health and development, whose research and teaching explore how the history of gender and medicine shape debates and policymaking around ethics, governance, and justice. 

Her current book project, Authoritarian Body Politics, rethinks the rise of global reproductive governance by centering East and West Pakistan as foundational sites. The book argues that reproductive governance was key to the making (and unmaking) of postcolonial Pakistan, and traces how authoritarianism, Islamic modernism, and Cold War-era geopolitics converged here to inform global approaches to reproductive health and rights that persist to this day.

Alongside her scholarly research, Qayyum has led applied research and policy initiatives focused on health and development. She previously served as Program Director of the Faith and Global Health Initiative at Georgetown University, where she oversaw the research program of a multidisciplinary Lancet Commission examining the changing landscape of trust in health science and systems. As a former Brookings expert, she co-led a visiting fellowship program and policy research portfolio focusing on gender and development.

Qayyum's work has been recognized with the 2021 Pirzada Prize in Pakistan Studies from the University of California, Berkeley, and supported by fellowships from the American Council of Learned Societies, the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, the American Institute of Pakistan Studies, the Joint Center for History and Economics at Harvard University, and the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library and Foundation, among others. Her research and commentary have appeared in Diplomatic History, The Washington Post, The Lancet, and Brookings.

Prior to joining UGA, Qayyum held a postdoctoral appointment at Yale University’s Jackson School of Global Affairs. She received her Ph.D. in History from Princeton University.