Insha Akram

Insha Akram is a Ph.D. student in the Interdisciplinary Urban Design and Planning program at the College of Built Environments. Her research explores the intersection of food sovereignty, gender, and protracted conflict in the Global South, with a particular focus on Kashmir. She investigates how women smallholder farmers engage in food cultivation not only as a means of sustenance but also as a practice of resistance, care, and spatial autonomy under military occupation. Drawing on South Asian feminist thought and political ecology, Insha’s work centers the everyday acts of land stewardship, community nourishment, and affective solidarities that emerge in spaces shaped by occupation and structural violence. Her broader goal is to build theoretical frameworks grounded in the lived realities of women farmers in conflict-affected regions.

Insha holds a Master’s in Urban and Regional Planning with a specialization in Community Health and Food Systems, an MBA with a concentration in Logistics and Supply Chain Management, and a Bachelor’s in Biological Sciences. She currently works as a Research Assistant in the Department of Urban Design and Planning and serves as Assistant Program Manager for the Livable City Year initiative at UW. Before pursuing her doctoral studies, she worked in the IT and food retail sectors, where her experience collaborating with disabled colleagues shaped her lasting commitment to equity and inclusive systems. Outside of academia, she enjoys listening to audiobooks, watching historical television series, and spending quiet moments near rivers and waterfalls.