Haris A. Durrani

Haris A. Durrani is a J.D. candidate at Columbia Law School. He holds an M.Phil. in History and Philosophy of Science from the University of Cambridge and a B.S. in Applied Physics from Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Science, where he minored in Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies and co-founded The Muslim Protagonist Literary Symposium on "literature as an agent of social change" for Muslim communities and allies.

Durrani is the author of Technologies of the Self (Brain Mill Press, 2016), winner of the Driftless Novella Contest. His short story, "Forty-two Reasons Your Girlfriend Works for the FBI, CIA, NSA, ICE, S.H.I.E.L.D., Fringe Division, Men in Black, or Cylon Overlords," (Buffalo Almanack, 2015) won the McSweeney's Student Short Story Contest and the Inkslinger Award for Creative Excellence, and his novelette Tethered (Analog Science Fiction and Fact, July-August 2013; reprinted in Lightspeed, May 2016) was a Writers of the Future Semifinalist. Buffalo Almanack described his work as "stories about colonialism, neoliberalism, conspiracy bullshit, and a Trumped-out America at the gates of hell."

His essays, memoirs, and academic works have appeared in Catapult, The New York Review of Science Fiction, Media Diversified, and altMuslimah. He edited The Best Teen Writing of 2012. His academic article, "Space Law, Shari’a, and the Legal Place of a Scientific Enterprise," is forthcoming from Comparative Islamic Studies. He is a 2009 alum of the Alpha Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror Workshop for Young Writers and was a 2011 Portfolio Gold Medalist in the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, for which he currently serves on the Alumni Council. When he grows up, he would like to live on Gliese 581 g, if it exists. https://engspurdishabic.wordpress.com