Now.
what I'm thinking about /
may 2026
may 2026
My work follows a signal chain. From a singer's breath at the microphone, through cables, knobs, and code, to the speaker that fills a room. The chain is Pakistan's devotional media: naat in praise of the Prophet, Islamic sermons, sufi music, and the remixers, pirates, archivists, and engineers who keep all of it moving. Fieldwork to date has centred on South Asia and its global diasporas, with sustained attention to platforms, archives, and informal media economies.
01 · CONCEPT
The DAW as sacred space
Cubase, FL Studio, Audacity. Cracked copies running on home computers in Karachi and Lahore. Devotional music gets edited on a timeline now. Breath gets cut, reverb gets automated, the live vocal gets quantized to the grid. The Digital Audio Workstation is doing work mosques and mihrabs used to do, and we have no theology of it yet.
02 · CONCEPT
Piracy as practice, not problem
Pakistani producers use unauthorized software the way they use second-hand cars. It works, it breaks, somebody on Hall Road fixes it. The apparatus of knowledge sharing the global IP framework cannot see is also an apparatus of repair. Cracked tools are not a problem to fix. They are how the craft works.
03 · CONCEPT
Blur the preacher
A remixer cuts a sermon, blurs the preacher's face, recaptions the audio, and reposts it. Authority used to live in the body of the man at the pulpit. Now it lives in an edit anyone can make on a laptop. I track what happens to religious authority when the source can be reassembled at will.
04 · CONCEPT
Obfuscation as revelation
The compression artefact, the blurred face, the muddied lyric, the YouTube re-upload of a re-upload. In devotional remix these are not failures of fidelity. They are how the sacred travels through a medium that cannot bear its full weight. The 'low resolution' is a feature.
05 · CONCEPT
WhatsApp as devotional ecology
The platform built for personal messaging in California is doing the work that printing presses, radio stations, and pulpit announcements used to do. Sermon clips, fatwas, donation requests, prayer schedules, jokes about the imam. The group chat is real infrastructure.
06 · CONCEPT
Where does the sacred end and the meme begin?
AI captions a sermon. A deepfake puts new words in a scholar's mouth. An #Islamogram meme loops a devotional clip into a joke. These objects haunt each other. Old forms of authority keep returning in glitched, remixed shapes, and the line between worship and play stops holding.
// On the desk
- chasing How a cracked copy of Cubase becomes a devotional instrument, and what a theology of the timeline would even look like.
- writing An article on WhatsApp as moral traffic, where sermon clips, fatwas, and donations move through one pipe. Forthcoming in Mobile Media and Communication.
- writing A chapter on AI in Islamic sermons, read through the case of the preacher Engineer Muhammad Ali Mirza.
- writing A chapter on the technical imagination needed to read deepfakes against the grain.
- under review An article on hauntology and online #Islamogram memes for the Journal of Media and Religion.
- reading Charles Hirschkind on the cassette sermon. Birgit Meyer on religious aesthetics. Lisa Nakamura on race and the internet.
- listening Naat archives via Hamnawa and Discostan. Hall Road YouTube channels that document repair work in real time.
- teaching Reimagining Global Copyright at the iSchool, plus TA work across more than a dozen UTM ICCIT courses.
Writing.
selected /
full list on cv
full list on cv
2025article
Media, Culture and Society, 47(8), 1599 to 1618.
2025essay
HELIOTROPE. Field essay with photographs.
A walking essay through the Lahore electronics market that keeps Pakistan's religious music industry running. Shops, repair stalls, small studios.
2024article
Journal of Religion, Media and Digital Culture, 13(3), 363 to 386.
YouTube remixers in Pakistan cut, blur, and rebuild religious sermons. What happens to a preacher's authority when his words get edited and reshared?
in pressarticle
Obfuscation as revelation: Knowledge sharing, piracy, and Islamic devotional remixing in Pakistan
Digital Humanities Quarterly. Special issue on the Global South.
Pakistani religious music producers often work with pirated software. The article argues that cracked tools are part of the craft, not a problem to fix.
Dec 2026forthcoming
Moral traffic: How WhatsApp moves media, rules, and resources in Pakistan's devotional media ecologies
Mobile Media and Communication. Special issue on messaging applications.
WhatsApp groups move audio files, religious rulings, and donations through the same channels. The article treats the group chat as real infrastructure.
Full publication list on the CV tab.
Teaching.
courses /
UofT · UTM
UofT · UTM
GRAD · UofT iSchool
Reimagining Global Copyright
A graduate seminar on how copyright works around the world and how it might work better.
2024, 2025 · 25 students · four sections
UNDERGRAD · UTM ICCIT
Religion, Media and Popular Culture
An undergraduate course on how religion shows up in movies, TV, and online.
2023 · 40 students · two sections
UNDERGRAD · UTM
Human-Machine Communication
A course on how people talk to and through machines, from chatbots to algorithms.
Instructor of record · Deferred
UNDERGRAD · UTM
Digital Platforms: A Global Perspective
A course on how digital platforms work in different parts of the world.
Instructor of record · Deferred
TA work on more than a dozen courses on the CV tab.
Speaking.
recent talks /
full list on cv
full list on cv
Nov 2025
Remixing Devotion: The Digital Audio Workstation as Sacred SpaceSacred Space: Conflicts and Convergences. Trinity College, University of Toronto.
Nov 2025
From Breath to Waveform: HCI Lessons from Editing Naat in CubaseSPIRITED '25: Conference on Spirituality, Religion, and Interactive Technology Design.
Jun 2025
Obfuscation as revelation: Piracy and Islamic devotional remixingICA 2025 Pre-Conference. Boulder, Colorado.
Jan 2025
Remixing devotion: Digital media practices in PakistanInvited talk. Jackman Humanities Institute, University of Toronto.
Jun 2024
Digital desires and distortions: Deepfake pornography in Pakistani cyberspaceGlobal Digital Intimacies Conference. University of Amsterdam.
Oct 2023
Bytes of blessings: Digital technology's influence on Pakistan's Naat culture51st Annual Conference on South Asia. University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Press.
features + coverage /
2024 — 2026
2024 — 2026
iSchool
University of Toronto · Faculty of Information
PhD candidate Hassan Asif spotlighted by the iSchools Organization
iSchools.orgRead ↗
Featured Member, Issue #11: Hassan Asif
Jackman HumanitiesRead ↗
JHI Circle of Fellows Spotlight: Hassan Asif
Chancellor
Jackman
Jackman
Graduate Fellow · 2024 to 2025
As Jackman Fellow, PhD student Hassan Asif will explore underground Islamic media
HELIOTROPERead ↗
Hall Road, Lahore: Devotion's signal chain
Hamnawa
A publication on Pakistani pop · By Zeerak Ahmed
Subject of academic study in Media, Culture and Society
CV.
full record /
updated may 2026
updated may 2026
Scholar of digital religion and media. I study how AI assisted edits, captions, and audio travel across platforms and reshape doctrine, authority, and aesthetic form. My work combines ethnography, close reading of audiovisual remixes, and media genealogy. Contact: h.asif@mail.utoronto.ca. A one-page version is available on request.
// 01
Education
2026
PhD, Information. University of Toronto
Collaborative Specialization in South Asian Studies. Defended May 2026; conferral October 2026.
Dissertation: "Remixing Devotion: Digital Media Practices in Pakistan."
- Supervisor: Prof. Seamus Ross
- Committee: Prof. Mark V. Campbell, Prof. Farzaneh Hemmasi
- Internal Examiner: Prof. Nadia Caidi, Faculty of Information, University of Toronto
- External Examiner: Prof. Rahul Mukherjee, Cinema and Media Studies and English, University of Pennsylvania
2015
MA, Museums and Gallery Practice. University College London
Distinction. Dissertation: "The Muslim Buddha: Sculpture and Heritage Values in Taxila, Pakistan." Supervisor: Prof. Trinidad Rico.
2014
BS, Communication Studies. Northwestern University
Cum laude, GPA 3.75. Minor: Cultural Anthropology.
// 02
Publications
Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles
Asif, H. (2025). Discostan and Hamnawa: Between erasure and preservation in South Asian digital diasporic archives. Media, Culture and Society, 47(8), 1599 to 1618. doi.org/10.1177/01634437251353093
How two small online archives keep South Asian music alive when the big platforms forget it.
Asif, H. (2024). "Blur the preacher": Media remix and digital technocultural practice in Pakistan. Journal of Religion, Media and Digital Culture, 13(3), 363 to 386. doi.org/10.1163/21659214-bja10110
What happens to a preacher's authority when his words can be edited by anyone with a laptop.
Asif, H. (in press). Obfuscation as revelation: Knowledge sharing, piracy, and Islamic devotional remixing in Pakistan. Digital Humanities Quarterly, special issue on digitization and machine learning in the Global South.
Cracked software as part of the craft, not a problem to fix.
Asif, H. (forthcoming 2026). Moral traffic: How WhatsApp moves media, rules, and resources in Pakistan's devotional media ecologies. Mobile Media and Communication, special issue on messaging applications and global cultures of mobility.
The group chat as real religious infrastructure.
Asif, H. (under review). IslaMixing: Hauntology as an experimental framework for exploring online #Islamogram memes. Journal of Media and Religion.
Peer-Reviewed Book Chapters
Asif, H. (in press). Translating truth: AI in digital Islamic sermons and the case of Engineer Muhammad Ali Mirza. In D. Sundaram and C. Tekobbe (Eds.), Social Media, Religion, and Culture. Routledge.
Asif, H. (in press). Technical imagination against deepfakes: Reading, bending, and exposing the image game. In J. Tulasiewicz, S. Jovicic, and X. Zhan (Eds.), Ethnographies of Digital Addiction, Harm, and Repair. Bloomsbury Academic.
Asif, H., and Rico, T. (2017). The Buddha Remains: Heritage transactions in Taxila, Pakistan. In T. Rico (Ed.), The Making of Islamic Heritage. Palgrave Macmillan. doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-4071-9_7
Other Contributions
Asif, H. (2025). Hall Road, Lahore: Devotion's signal chain. HELIOTROPE. heliotropejournal.net/helio/hall-road
A walking field essay through the Lahore electronics market, with photographs.
Asif, H. (2019). Really risky "interpretation." Association for Heritage Interpretation, 24(1), 36 to 37.
Rico, T., and Asif, H. (2015). Reports. Anthropology of the Middle East, 10(1), 61 to 88.
Asif, H. (2013). Rolling out a new broadband era in Qatar. The Edge, 43, 40.
Works in Progress
Asif, H. (co-editor). (in preparation). Digital Religion [edited volume; proposal planned for Winter 2026].
// 03
Grants and Awards
2025
Margaret Higgins Memorial Fellowship
University-wide. CA $2,000.
2025
Professor Amilcare Iannucci Graduate Fellowship in the Humanities
University-wide. CA $5,000.
2024 to 2025
Chancellor Jackman Graduate Fellowship
University-wide. CA $38,000.
2023 to 2024
SSHRC Doctoral Scholarship
National competition. CA $20,000.
2021 to 2023
Ontario Graduate Scholarship
Provincial competition. CA $30,000.
2021 to 2022
iSchools Inc. Research Award
International competition. CA $5,000.
2022
SGS Research Travel Grant; Ethel W. Auster Scholarship
University-wide. CA $3,000 and CA $2,000.
Full list of grants and awards available on request.
// 04
Research Experience
2021 to 2022
Research Assistant, #Blacktronica Electronic Music in Detroit and Berlin
Prof. Beth Coleman, University of Toronto Mississauga.
2020 to 2021
Participant and Research Assistant, DigiLabs Workshops
University of Toronto and University of Manchester.
2021
Student Research Trainee, Insights Through Asia Challenge
Asian Institute, University of Toronto.
2020 to 2021
Reading groups: McLuhan Centre, Toronto Data Workshop
University of Toronto.
2015 to 2019
Earlier research and curriculum roles
Lahore College of Arts and Sciences; Barker Langham; Lahore University of Management Sciences; TBWA\Worldwide; Northwestern University.
// 05
Field Research
2022
Devotional media and remix culture
Karachi, Lahore, and adjacent cities, Pakistan.
2015
Buddhist sculpture and heritage values
Taxila and Islamabad, Pakistan.
2012 to 2014
Earlier fieldwork
Experimental film (Paris); female sports participation (Doha); media entrepreneurship (Seoul); heavy metal subculture (Lahore, Islamabad).
// 06
Professional Experience
2025
Chief Presiding Officer, University of Toronto Mississauga
Oversaw UTM's spring examination period across multiple venues; supervised presiding officers and invigilators; liaised with Accessibility Services.
2021 to 2023
Senior Digital Fellow, Muslims in Canada Archive and Data Initiative
Institute of Islamic Studies, University of Toronto.
- Helped initiate a nationwide collection and digitization program; prototyped archival workflows with U of T Libraries.
- Led RFP processes for Access to Memory (AtoM) hosting; prototyped a Dataverse repository with metadata schemas and access controls.
2016 to 2018
Program Manager (Amal Academy); Project Assistant and Consultant, Culture (UNESCO Pakistan)
Trained more than 500 students; ran heritage digitization workshops preserving over 2,000 artefacts; managed preservation projects with budgets over US $150,000.
Additional curatorial and professional roles available on request.
// 07
Teaching
Courses Taught
2024, 2025
Reimagining Global Copyright
Graduate, University of Toronto. 25 students, offered four times.
2023
Religion, Media and Popular Culture
Undergraduate, UTM. 40 students, offered twice.
Appointed
Human-Machine Communication; Digital Platforms: A Global Perspective
Undergraduate, UTM. Instructor of record; offerings deferred.
2018 to 2019
Engaging with Texts; History and Sociology
Lahore University of Management Sciences and Lahore College of Arts and Sciences.
Teaching Assistant
2020 to 2026
ICCIT, University of Toronto Mississauga
More than a dozen courses across communication, media, and culture.
- Contemporary Communication Technologies (7 sections); Rhetoric and Media (8 sections)
- Media Audiences; Communication and Advertising; Mind, Media and Representation; Visual Culture; and others
2020 to 2021
Faculty of Information and Asian Institute, University of Toronto
Remix Culture; Project Management; Museums and Indigenous Communities; Asian Youth Cultures.
// 08
Conference Presentations
Nov 2025
Remixing Devotion: The Digital Audio Workstation as Sacred Space
Sacred Space: Conflicts and Convergences. Trinity College, University of Toronto.
Nov 2025
From Breath to Waveform: HCI Lessons from Editing Naat in Cubase
SPIRITED '25: Conference on Spirituality, Religion, and Interactive Technology Design.
Jun 2025
Obfuscation as revelation: Piracy and Islamic devotional remixing in Pakistan
International Communication Association 2025 Pre-Conference. Boulder, Colorado.
Jun 2025
Between confusion and deception: Ethical dilemmas in AI-enabled remixing of sermons
Canadian Communication Association Annual Conference. George Brown College, Toronto.
2025
Cracked devotion; Mediating truth
South Asia Graduate Student Workshop, University of Toronto; Communication Graduate Caucus Conference, Carleton University.
Jun 2024
Digital desires and distortions: Deepfake pornography in Pakistani cyberspace
Global Digital Intimacies Conference. University of Amsterdam.
May 2024
Technological transcendence: The transformation of Naat in Pakistan's digital Islamic landscape
Canadian Association for the Study of Islam and Muslims, Second Biennial Conference. Halifax.
Oct 2023
Bytes of blessings: Digital technology's influence on Pakistan's Naat culture
51st Annual Conference on South Asia. University of Wisconsin-Madison.
2013 to 2023
Earlier presentations
On Naat self-presentation, diasporic music archives, media remix, Gandharan art, MENA broadband, and heavy metal in Pakistan. Full list on request.
// 09
Invited Talks
Jan 2026
Remix, devotion, and media infrastructures in Pakistan
Guest lecture, Remix Culture course, University of Toronto.
Mar 2025
Politics, pop, and the pulpit: Where does the sacred end and the meme begin?
Guest lecture, Remix Culture course, University of Toronto.
Jan 2025
Remixing devotion: An exploration of digital media practices in Pakistan
Invited talk, Jackman Humanities Institute, University of Toronto.
2020 to 2023
Earlier guest lectures and talks
On digital audio workstations and devotion, Naat self-presentation, sonic heritage, and cross-cultural project management. University of Toronto and UTM.
// 10
Service and Training
2025 to now
Volunteer Mentor, Palestinian Students and Scholars at Risk (PSSAR)
Guide Palestinian graduate students on applications, supervisor matching, funding, and adjustment in North America.
Ongoing
Graduate Student Mentor; Manuscript Reviewer
Mentor students from South Asia and the Middle East. Reviewer for Journal of Religion, Media, and Digital Culture and Stream.
2024, 2025
Training: Centre for Culture and Technology Summer Institute; Oxford Internet Institute
Code labs with critical seminars (Ludus, turtle graphics, Papert, Weizenbaum); Global South approaches to AI governance and platform politics.
// 11
Languages and Skills
Languages
English, Urdu, Punjabi (native fluency; Punjabi also in Shahmukhi script). Arabic (reading proficiency).
Audio and Media
Cubase, FL Studio, Sonic Pi, Adobe Creative Suite, FFmpeg.
Programming and Data
Python, SQL, MATLAB, Praat signal processing, OpenCV.
Memberships
CCA, CASIM, Association of Canadian Archivists, Museums Association of Pakistan, IASPM.
Lab.
16-step sequencer /
audio interactive
audio interactive
Build a short loop. Four percussion tracks, sixteen steps, one tempo. Click the cells to switch them on, hit play, and adjust as it loops. Sounds are loosely modeled on the percussion you would hear at a mehfil. Try the presets at the top right. Headphones recommended.
BPM96
// SEQUENCER 16 STEPS · 4 TRACKS
Dum (low)
▶
Tin (high)
▶
Clap
▶
Bell
▶
Mehfil Rig.
signal chain puzzle /
drag and drop
drag and drop
Drag each piece of audio gear into the slot where you think it belongs. The chain reads left to right. When all six slots are filled, press check to see if you got it right. If the chain is correct, you can play a synthesized naat through it.
0of 6 placed
0in correct spot
0checks used
// CHAIN POS 01 → 06
01
Where the voice
starts
starts
02
Boost the
weak signal
weak signal
03
Shape the
tone
tone
04
Even out
the volume
the volume
05
Add room
and weight
and weight
06
Where it
finally lands
finally lands
// GEAR TRAY DRAG ANY PIECE INTO A SLOT
Elsewhere.
contact + links /
all profiles
all profiles