01
Start with local knowledge
Make indigenous knowledge, community experience, and Pakistan’s histories and languages part of how we develop questions and concepts.
ABOUT DSSP · OUR MISSION
Expanding who shapes
the social sciences.
DSSP connects people working toward social sciences that take Pakistan’s intellectual traditions, social realities, and diverse communities seriously as sources of knowledge and theory.
Meet the communityWHAT DECOLONIZATION MEANS TO US
Grounded in local realities.
Open to critical inquiry.
Colonial histories continue to influence academic authority: whose work is recognized, how research questions are chosen, and who participates in interpreting the findings. Examining those patterns is part of changing them.
We support critical engagement with scholarship from around the world, alongside rigorous examination of local traditions and power structures. Marginalized perspectives belong in inquiry, and all knowledge claims remain open to evidence, debate, and revision.
HOW CONNECTION SUPPORTS THE MISSION
The platform begins with people.
02
Look beyond your discipline
Discover people beyond your own field. A shared question can open a conversation about research, teaching, or a different way of seeing.
03
Connect across borders
Build relationships that can support locally grounded research, inclusive teaching, and more equitable collaboration across borders.
THE PEOPLE BEHIND DSSP
The people
behind the platform.
DSSP began with Dr. Rabia Akhtar’s vision to bring minds together. Through collaboration with Ahmed Khan, that idea became this platform.
DSSP LEAD
Dr. Rabia Akhtar
An academic entrepreneur whose work connects research, policy, and public discourse. Rabia initiated the vision for DSSP.
DEVELOPER
Ahmed Khan
Ahmed built DSSP to turn a shared vision into a place where people can discover one another and connect through their interests.
YOUR PERSPECTIVE BELONGS HERE
Bring your questions.
Share your perspective.
Find your collaborators—and help expand whose knowledge shapes the social sciences.