Biography

Atandra Abrar Ahmed is a researcher and practitioner of disaster management and a PhD candidate at the University of Auckland. He trained in disaster management and vulnerability studies in Bangladesh. His Master’s research examined public–private partnerships for urban disaster resilience.

Abrar has worked across research and humanitarian practice, including as a Research Associate on a programme led by the University of Oxford and within the United Nations humanitarian coordination system in Bangladesh. His professional experience spans disaster displacement management, climate migration, water security, needs assessment and humanitarian response coordination.

His research focuses on disaster risk reduction, particularly the relationship between power, knowledge and place. He is interested in challenging top-down and Western-centric approaches to disaster risk reduction and foregrounding indigenous and local knowledge, practices and understandings. His doctoral research examines local understandings of disaster in Bangladesh and their implications for more inclusive, locally grounded and sustainable disaster risk reduction – with Dhaka as the case study.

More details: www.atandraabrar.net; https://www.linkedin.com/in/atandra-abrar/ ; https://profiles.auckland.ac.nz/atandra-abrar-ahmed

Contact: atandra.abrar@gmail.com ; atandra.abrar.ahmed@gmail.com