Sahar Ishtiaque Ullah is an independent scholar, artist, and linguist whose work bridges the gap between the crumbling ivory tower and community. Ullah is the recipient of the Presidential Teaching Award, the highest teaching honor at Columbia University, where she earned her Ph.D. in Comparative Literature. Her work has been published in various academic journals, including most recently in a special issue of the Asian Journal of African Studies (AJAS) on travelling texts. Ullah has facilitated storytelling workshops for young women incarcerated on Rikers Island through the Rikers Education Program and has taught literature through the Justice-in-Education Initiative, a program that supports Justice Scholars: formerly incarcerated students on the college track. Ullah is the creative director, playwright, and performer of the critically-acclaimed Hijabi Monologues—a theater project about the lived experiences of Muslim women who happen to wear the headscarf—that toured for over a decade across the United States and internationally from the Peacock Theatre in Dublin to Theatre Zuidplein in Rotterdam to AtAmerica in Jakarta to the Bush Theatre in London. Ullah’s theater work has been reviewed by the BBC, The Stage, Exeunt Magazine, The Asian Writer, and British Council Voices. She also consults on diversity, equity, and inclusion for universities and high schools; US Embassies and the British Council; and television and theater. Currently, she is working on her liberatory vision and path through creating and connecting.