Helal Khan
Helal Mohammed Khan is an Assistant Teaching Professor of Justice and Peace Studies at Georgetown University.
His research explores identity and hope, space and placemaking, and the dynamics of cooperation and well-being. His teaching is shaped by the lived experiences of diasporas in the West and his work and educational experiences in South Asia, Africa, Europe, the UK, and the United States. Before entering academia, Helal served in the Bangladesh Army, where he taught at the Infantry School and held a senior staff position at the border forces' headquarters. He also participated in a UN peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Helal earned his PhD in Peace Studies and Anthropology from the University of Notre Dame, where he was a Presidential Fellow at the Kroc Institute, a Doctoral Student Affiliate at the Kellogg Institute, and a Justice Fellow at the Center for Social Concerns. He held a Chevening Scholarship from the UK Government and a Master Mind Scholarship from the Government of Flanders, Belgium, prior to his doctoral work. Helal's doctoral thesis received the Best Graduate Thesis Award from the Peace & Justice Studies Association (2023-24).
At Georgetown, Helal teaches several core courses for the JUPS program. In addition to his teaching, he is currently working on a book project provisionally titled The Abling Refugees and Regimes of Cooperation: The Burmese Rohingya in the American Midwest.