Yale World Fellows

Arshi Hashmi and Stephen Shashoua – Yale World Fellows

Arshi specializes in religion and violent conflicts. She is an Associate Professor at the National Defense University (NDU) Islamabad. Arshi has studied at the American University (AU) & at SAIS, John Hopkins University. She is working on a book focusing on Religious Seminaries in India and Pakistan & Politics of Jihad. She gives lectures at  Armed Forces Staff Colleges, Defense Services Intelligence Academy & Intelligence Bureau Pakistan. Arshi has worked with the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life and the Middle East Institute in USA. She has been a Kodikara fellow that resulted in the book “Conflict Transformation from Ethnic Movement to Terrorist Movement,” published by the Regional Centre for Strategic Studies, Colombo in 2008. She is widely published and often appears as a political analyst on Pakistani television.  

After more than 10 years leading the London-based Three Faiths Forum (3FF), Stephen joins the Yale World Fellows at a pivotal point in his career. As Director, Stephen led the development of 3FF into one of the UK’s largest and most delivery orientated interfaith and intercultural organizations.  Seen as having been central in changing the landscape of work in the field, Stephen built 3FF from a staff of two into a team of 18 to innovate, design, and deliver a wide portfolio of award-winning social cohesion programs that encourage interaction and learning between people of different faiths and beliefs in the UK and internationally. Under Stephen’s direction, 3FF won the 2 Awards for Intercultural Innovation from the UN Alliance of Civilisations (2009 and 2010); the Doha International Interfaith Award (2014); the Shap Award for Excellence in Religious Education (2014) and became the Camden Mayor’s Charity of the Year (2014-15). With a background in education and a lifetime of understanding cultures, Stephen continues to work towards solutions to tensions between people and communities and promotes interaction, cooperation and learning through his work on the ground, as well as through his writing and lecturing. Stephen is also a Co-Founder of Iraq in Common, a network of young professionals of Iraqi descent of different faiths.