Research Topic 

Basit’s research examines the role of pre-digital photographs in sustaining collective memory within communities marked by loss, silence, and surveillance.

Critical of the progressive narratives surrounding digital preservation, this research focuses upon the fragile, analog traces through which remembrance endures under the pressures of control, decay, and enforced forgetting. At the root of this work is a concern with the photograph as a site where memory resists erasure.

Biography 

Basit completed his M.A. in Convergent Journalism at the AJK Mass Communication Research Centre, Jamia Millia Islamia, where he developed a keen interest in archival practices, memory, and the intersections between media, history, and identity. Before joining LSE as a doctoral researcher, Basit worked as a journalist for a range of international publications, including Al Jazeera, TRT World, Deutsche Welle (DW), and The Diplomat, among others. His work has engaged with questions of representation, conflict, often focusing on narratives emerging from South Asia. 

Basit’s academic interests centre on the politics of the archive, visual culture, and the mediation of memory. His PhD research at LSE is supported by a studentship from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) through the London Arts and Humanities Partnership (LAHP).