Rate My Professor Ali Malik

Ali Malik is an Assistant Professor of Global Studies in the Schnitzer School of Global Studies and Languages at the University of Oregon, where he contributes to the social sciences through interdisciplinary scholarship. His research interests include the political economy of globalization, socio-legal studies, critical agrarian studies, science and technology studies, third world approaches to international law, digital agriculture, and South Asia. Malik's ongoing projects examine the introduction of big data, artificial intelligence, and machine learning technologies into agriculture and food systems in the Global South, particularly India. He investigates whether these innovations deliver on promises promoted by dominant agrifood institutions, industry leaders, and private actors for more precise farming data, advanced technologies, and training to modernize farmers. His analyses explore intersections between these technologies, capitalism, imperialism, and agrarian politics, noting how human agency reshapes technologies in unexpected ways, often sparking political contestation among smallholder farmers. For instance, in India, state efforts to control farmers via technology have prompted organization and resistance rather than compliance.

Malik earned his Ph.D. in Socio-legal Studies from York University in 2022 and an M.A. in International Human Rights Law from the American University in Cairo. Prior to his appointment at the University of Oregon, he taught interdisciplinary courses in law, politics, and society at Drake University. His publications feature "Making the New Developmental State: International Law and Neoliberal State Formation in India" (Third World Approaches to International Law Review, 2024), "Linking climate-smart agriculture to farming as a service: mapping an emergent paradigm of datafied dispossession in India" (The Journal of Peasant Studies, 2023), "Ownership of Intangibles: Intellectual Property and the Contested Commons" (Routledge Handbook of Law and Society, 2021), "Transforming the Work of Geographical Indications to Decolonize Racialized Labor and Support Agroecology" (UC Irvine Law Review, 2018, co-authored with Rosemary Coombe), and contributions on geographical indications in Asia addressing gendered labor. In teaching, he emphasizes interdisciplinary toolkits of theories, concepts, and methods to help students navigate global crises and their implications.