Dr. Omar Sadr is a political scientist with over a decade of experience in academia and think tanks. He is a research fellow at the Raoul Wellenburgh Institute for Human Rights. He is also the founding editor-in-chief and host of Negotiating Ideas, an online magazine and podcast on democracy and pluralism. Previously, he worked as a research scholar at the University of Pittsburgh, an affiliate scholar at Princeton University, and as an assistant professor of political science at the American University of Afghanistan (AUAF). His primary research interests include the political theory of pluralism, governance, human rights, civil resistance, and political Islam. Dr. Sadr has made significant contributions to his field. His book, Negotiating Cultural Diversity in Afghanistan, which won a 2022 book prize for Best Book in Social Science from the Central Eurasian Studies Society, examines the challenges to peaceful coexistence in a pluralistic society and develops a political theory of governance of diversity. Dr. Sadr holds a Ph.D. (2018) from South Asian University (SAU), a university established by the SAARC nations. His current research examines the contestation between liberalism, Islamism, and customary values in the third republic of Afghanistan (2001-2021) and investigates authority, legitimacy, and resistance under Taliban rule.
Sadr’s research has been supported by numerous fellowships, including Acton Institute’s Collins Center for Abrahamic Heritage, Princeton University’s Afghanistan Policy Lab (APL), Princeton University’s Afghanistan Policy Lab, American Institute of Afghanistan Studies (AIAS)’s John F. Richards Fellowship, MESA Global Academy at the Middle East Studies Association, the Scholar Rescue Fund (SRF) at the Institute of International Education (IIE), and the CAMCA at the Rumsfeld Foundation and Central Asia-Caucasus Institute. He is also a member of the New University in Exile Consortium at The New School in New York.