Dr. Aasim Khan is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Global Studies. His main academic goal is to help rebuild the humanistic principles in public policy and design models of governance that work in the digital era. In his publications, teaching, and research, he has consistently sought to combine his cross-disciplinary interests in theories of social networks, digital mediation, AI, and big data with an empirical focus on the emerging challenges of public policy. His aim is to align policy goals with a broader pursuit of shared humanity in the 21st century.

Dr. Khan’s research has explored the frontiers of public policy in light of digital technological change across various policy domains, ranging from global policy issues in technology law and regulation to localized challenges of air pollution monitoring and public welfare delivery. In all his work, he has highlighted why conventional policy design and practices associated with market-led mechanisms based on individual choice are inadequate. He also demonstrates the limitations of state-led developmental efforts that rely on institutions that have lost public trust and credibility in contemporary times.

As his work shows, while these methods are necessary, they are insufficient in addressing the complex ethical and increasingly practical problems of effective governance due to the diversity in the networked structures of contemporary culture in societies around the world. As a scholar, Dr. Khan has drawn from theories of ethics, social networks, and the social life of AI and big data to emphasize the need to realign public policy design and processes with a culturally specific framework that enhances public trust and legitimacy, rather than allowing platforms to determine outcomes in our lives.

During his doctoral research, Dr. Khan was awarded the Global Institutes Fellowship at the India Institute, King’s College London (2012-2015) and was a Global Governance Futures Fellow at the Global Public Policy Institute (GPPi Berlin, 2014-15). Most recently, he was awarded the Fulbright-Nehru postdoctoral award (2022-23) and was a Visiting Scholar in Political Science at the Watson Institute for Public and International Affairs, Brown University, USA.

Over the years, Dr. Khan’s research has been supported by a variety of grants including the Global Challenge Research Fund (GCRF, awarded in collaboration with Goldsmiths University, UK) and the Indian Council for Social Science Research (ICSSR). He has collaborated with leading universities in the EU including the LMU Germany and the Centre for South Asia, Sciences Po, France. Research from these works has appeared in renowned journals, and he has co-edited two guest issues including a recent one in Global Policy (Wiley) and an earlier one in Television and New Media (Sage). In his current work, Dr. Khan is collaborating with AI and data scientists to explore emergent modes of digital governance with a focus on ethical principles and institutions fit for the digital age.

PhD, Politics and Public Policy, King’s College London, 2018                                       

MA, Global Media and Postnational Communication, 2011

BSc, Physics,Chemistry and Mathematics, University of Delhi, 2003

Digital Politics and Ethics

AI Governance

Big Data, Society & Public Policy

Khan, Aasim. “Towards a Union of Data States: Political Economy of Digitalisation of regional governance in India”, in Reality and Challenges of Great Transition in India: Issues and Debates, edited by Kim, C. and Misu Kim. Singapore: World Scientific Publishers (March, 2023) DOI: https://doi.org/10.1142/13307

Khan, Aasim. Midhat Fatima, Kabir Dureja and Vedant Jumle. “Decoding the Star System: Twitter and its impact on journalism in the global South”. Global Policy (2023). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/1758-5899.13252

Dwivedi, Ruchi. Yaqoob, M. Aasim Khan, Praveen Priyadarshi, R. Mutharaju, S. Alam and Sudhir Attri.” In search of a “Social-AQI”: Democratic deficits in the air pollution data regime in Delhi.” In Khaliq Parkar and Stéphanie Tawa Lama (eds). Digitalization of urban governance in India: Ideas, Techniques, Practices. SAMAJ: South Asia Multidisciplinary Academic Journal (October, 2023) DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/samaj.8768

Khan, Aasim. “Beyond Consent: Surveillance capitalism and politics in the data state” India Review 20, no. 2 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1080/14736489.2021.1895563

Webb, Martin. Aasim Khan, Venkata Ratnadeep Suri, Riad Azam & Farhat Salim. “Between hunger and contagion: Digital mediation and advocacy during the COVID19 emergency in Delhi” in Third World Quarterly (2023), DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/01436597.2023.2257612

Khan, Aasim. “Promises and Perils of Digital Transformation”, Review of The Great Tech Game: Shaping Geopolitics and The Destinies of Nations by Anirudh Suri. The Book Review 46, no. 5 (2022). https://www.thebookreviewindia.org/promises-and-perils-of-digital-transformation/

Khan, Aasim and Faiz Ullah. “Whose ‘Free Wi-Fi’ Is it Anyway: Digital Populism and urban politics of Internet Access in India” in Monteiro, Anjali., Rai, Amit. (eds.) Diginaka: Subaltern Politics and Digital Media in Post-capitalist India, Hyderabad: Orient Blackswan. (2020)

Udupa, Sahana. Shriram Venkataraman and Aasim Khan. “Introduction: Digital Politics in Millennial India: Global Media in Context.” Television and New Media 21, no. 4. (2019) https://doi.org/10.1177/1527476419870516

Khan, Aasim. “Political Economy of the Future.” Review of The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for Human Future at the New Frontier of Power by Shoshana Zuboff. Social Change 49, no. 4. (December, 2019) DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/004908571987292