Amna Qayyum

Amna Qayyum is an Assistant Professor at the University of Georgia, with a joint appointment in the Department of History and the Institute for Women's and Gender Studies. She is a scholar of global health and development, specializing in the history of gender, medicine, and science. 

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 central to the making (and unmaking) of Pakistan, and traces how authoritarianism, Islamic modernism, and Cold War development politics converged here to shape 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, gender, 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 global, multidisciplinary Lancet Commission. As a former Brookings expert, she co-led a visiting fellowship program and policy research portfolio focusing on gender and global development.

Qayyum's research 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. Her research and commentary have appeared in Diplomatic History, The Washington Post, The Lancet, and Brookings.

At UGA, she will be teaching courses on reproductive politics, public health and medicine, and modern South Asia. Her teaching invites students to think globally and comparatively, drawing connections between past and present, the U.S. and the world, and the interconnected worlds of research, policy, and practice.

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