I am a cultural anthropologist who believes in anthropology's ability to speak to contemporary global issues. My scholarship lies at the intersection of global migration studies, the social impacts of policy, and the political life of diasporas, with a focus on Australia, the Afghan diaspora, and the US. Broadly speaking, I am interested in how human beings' senses of self, community, and the future are shaped by displacement and living in colonial and imperial states. Through my work with the Afghan American Artists and Writers Association, I aim to use my platform to speak to issues that affect the everyday lives of the Afghan diaspora.

In 2023, my book Between Care and Criminality: Marriage, Citizenship, and Family in Australian Social Welfare was released by Rutgers University Press. The book is an anthropological study of Australia's social welfare system, specifically its policies around regulating transnational and domestic marriages among Muslim migrants in recent years. It is an in-depth look at how policies based on an ethics of care become caught up in the criminal justice and immigration systems. Through centering the perspectives of social welfare practitioners and migrant community leaders, the book critically reflects on the limitations of social policies formed at the nexus of the securitization of migration and culturally competent social welfare. 

*Photo Credits: From top left to right: Photo of Afghan women from Afghanistan: Ancient Land with Modern Ways, Ministry of Planning-Kabul, Afghanistan 1963; Malalai of Maiwand, Against the Current, 2021; Photo taken by Helena Zeweri; Feminist Formations Vol. 32, Issue 2; Photo taken by Helena Zeweri; Image from Australia Stop the Boats Campaign; Photo taken by Afghan American Conference, Workshop co-led by Gazelle Samizay and Helena Zeweri, 2019; Photo taken by Anthony McDougle, AAAWA Fragmented Futures Exhibit, Glendale, CA 2020.