Alishba Murad

Fulbright Lancaster University Summer Institute

Originally from Karachi, Pakistan, Alishba Murad moved to the United States at the age of 10 and is currently a student at New York University’s (NYU) Gallatin School of Individualized Study. At Gallatin, Alishba has rooted her concentration in Diversity in Multimedia, focusing on the relationships among different media, especially film, and how they affect how people feel seen, heard, and represented, and how they influence one's identity. Alishba’s love for filmmaking started at a young age. Graciously, thanks to her dad, you can find countless childhood videos of her; a video camera has been in her life since the day she was born. Now, Alishba is more passionate about being behind the camera, figuring out how to direct, edit, and use storytelling as a tool for social change, especially to ensure that South Asian stories are told around the world without being stereotyped or “othered.”

In the United Kingdom Alishba wants to find Oxford Reading Tree’s Biff, Chip, and Kipper books. Books that made her fall in love with reading and storytelling while growing up under the British curriculum in Pakistan. In Lancaster, Alishba is looking forward to expanding her knowledge of cinema and the impact of different cultures and regional narratives, and to making new friends. Alishba hopes that this opportunity at Lancaster University serves as a stepping stone in helping women, especially South Asian women, realize that belonging in cinema and the space of filmmaking doesn’t just have to be a dream; it can be reality.