Dr. Farah Naz

Project Staff

Institut für Internationale Entwicklung
Sensengasse 3/2/2
1090 Wien

T: +43-1-4277-64124
M: farah.naz@univie.ac.at

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9790-6233

I am a sociologist, and my research focuses on gender, labor markets, and intersectional postcolonial approaches. I explore how the political economy of global production intersects with gender structures, shaping social, economic, and political systems that marginalize women in the Global South. My interest in gender issues emerged from research on precarious work in global supply chains. Specifically, I examined the impact of corporate social responsibility initiatives and the labor conditions of informal, female home-based workers within global football supply chains. Currently, I am leading a research project titled Decolonizing Knowledge Production and Higher Education, funded by the Elise Richter Program of the Austrian Science Fund (FWF). This project addresses inequalities in higher education and aims to decolonize knowledge production in the Global South, emphasizing the importance of locally grounded and diverse perspectives.

Research Focus

  • Sociology of development
  • Academic Precarity
  • Global Supply Chains
  • Knowledge Production
  • Epistemic Inequalities
  • Postcolonial Feminist Theory

Selected Publication list

Project Information
Decolonizing the Knowledge Production and Higher Education (DeKnow)

Project Lead: Farah Naz
Student Assistant: Cleo Friedrich
Project Website: www.deknow.at
Funded by: Austrian Science Fund (FWF)
Duration: 2025-2029

The introduction of neoliberal reforms in higher education worldwide has established new hierarchies of knowledge production and re-Westernized higher education institutions across the globe. Universities and scholars—both individuals and national organizations—are increasingly compelled to comply with global norms and standards, which in turn reproduce inequalities at global, regional, and local levels. Yet research has not sufficiently examined how these global norms and standards are perceived and translated by diverse actors within their specific local contexts. Existing scholarship has addressed postcolonial legacies, regional disparities, and class hierarchies in higher education, but has largely overlooked the intersections with gender, particularly in relation to local dynamics. This project seeks to fill that gap by foregrounding the voices of women scholars from Pakistan, whose perspectives remain marginalized or unheard—even within critical decolonial discourses. The outcomes will not only contribute to ongoing debates on the global higher education sector and the decolonization of knowledge production, but also generate insights that can support activists, movements, and scholars in enhancing their agency and room for maneuver within higher education in Pakistan and beyond.