Dr. Mohammad Tarikul Islam is a Professor of Government and Politics at Jahangirnagar University, Bangladesh, recognized as an emerging political scientist and local government expert in South Asia. Before joining the university in 2014, he spent seven years with the United Nations Development Programme Bangladesh in research and project management roles. His work with the UNDP informs his current research and teaching on local government, climate negotiations, crisis, and disaster management. Since 2019, Dr. Islam has served as a Research Guide at the Bangladesh Public Administration Training Centre and offered courses at the National Defense College. He contributes regularly to the South Asia Blog of LSE, Oxford Political Review, SOAS Blog, and the Institute of South Asian Studies at NUS. His publications appear in international outlets like Routledge, Elsevier, Cambridge, SAGE, Oxford, and Springer. Notable books by Dr. Islam include "Local Government in Bangladesh," "Disaster, Governance and Development: Bangladesh Perspective," and "COVID-19 in South Asia: Its Impact on Society, Economics, and Politics." He has presented at prestigious institutions like Cambridge, LSE, SOAS, Oxford, Harvard, Hong Kong Polytechnic University and various universities in Asia. Dr. Islam is affiliated with Oxford, Harvard, Cambridge, and SOAS in various capacities (Visiting Research Fellow, Visiting Scholar, Post-Doctoral Fellow, Visiting Academics and Guest Faculty). His research interests include local government, crisis management, human security, climate diplomacy, sustainable development, project management, and forced migration.
Md Belal Hossen obtained his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from the Department of Government and Politics at Jahangirnagar University in Bangladesh. He works for The Business Standard, a reputable English-language daily in Bangladesh, as its diplomatic correspondent. He pursued both academics and professional journalism at campus. Being involved with Bangladesh’s four major daily newspapers for six years has offered him genuine expertise. In that time, he reported event and investigation news, wrote features, and developed content. He served as president of Bangladesh’s first campus journalist organisation, the Jahangirnagar University Journalists’ Association. At university, he worked as the Executive Editor of the student-run article journal ‘Poriborto’. Belal Hossen actively participated in a multitude of research-oriented endeavors right from the onset of his academic studies. He attended a number of academic workshops and seminars. His research prioritizes economic diplomacy, international trade and security, Local Governance and Development, and international migration and refugee concerns. At present, Belal Hossen is associated with the Nepal Institute for International Cooperation and Engagement (NIICE) as a research intern.