Helal Khan
My research examines how 21st-century peacebuilding depends on cooperation, local agency, and diverse social and political imaginations.
I study both majority and minority Muslim experiences, with particular focus on the Burmese Rohingya and other marginalized communities in the United States. My teaching draws on professional and academic work across South Asia, Africa, Europe, the UK, and the United States -- allowing me to think globally and bring comparative, transnational perspectives into the classroom.
Before re-entering academia, I served in the Bangladesh Army, where I taught at the Infantry School and held a senior staff position at the headquarters of the Border Guards Bangladesh. I also participated in a UN peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. These experiences inspire my approach to teaching and administration, and inform how I incorporate diverse understandings of security and cooperation into my courses.
I earned my PhD in Peace Studies and Anthropology from the University of Notre Dame, where I was a Presidential Fellow at the Kroc Institute, a Doctoral Affiliate at the Kellogg Institute, and a Justice Fellow at the Center for Social Concerns. My previous graduate studies were supported by a Chevening Scholarship from the UK government and a Master Mind Scholarship from Belgium's Flanders Government. My PhD dissertation received the Best Graduate Thesis Award from the Peace & Justice Studies Association (2023-24).
At Georgetown, I teach core courses in the Justice and Peace Studies program and, since Fall 2025, have been a fellow with the Georgetown Dialogues Initiative (GDI). I am currently working on a monograph titled, Abling Refugees and Regimes of Cooperation: The Burmese Rohingya in the American Midwest, examining refugee agency and state-civil society cooperation in the US context.