Aqsa Ijaz

I am a scholar of Persian, Urdu, and Punjabi literary traditions and focus on the reception
histories of classical Persian poetry in pre-modern North India. I specialize in the poetics of
emotion and ambiguity in long narrative poems of the twelfth century Persian poet, Nizami of
Ganja and focus on their reception in the Indian subcontinent between fourteenth and nineteenth
centuries. Additionally, I teach all levels of Urdu language and literature courses at McGill
University and the University of Toronto. My scholarship and pedagogy deeply engages with my
training and passion in North Indian classical music and informs my writing and public talks in
general.