Shabnam Syed Khan was Professor of Design at the National College of Arts (NCA), Lahore. 

Her interest in women’s studies began with her doctoral dissertation at Harvard, “Education & Agency: Muslim Women and the Tensions of Traditional & Modern Expectations.”  When she returned to Harvard as Visiting Professor of Education, she developed two art works, “Woman Question, the True Clash of Civilizations” and “What if my Pink Becomes your Blue and your Blue my Pink?” from a course “Muslim Women & Higher Education: A Culturally Informed Adult-Developmental Perspective” she taught.  She is currently Visiting Professor at Beaconhouse National University.  Recently she has been exploring the topic of her dissertation further.  In 2023 she presented a talk titled “Higher Education has Failed Us—the Ordinary Women,” at the Alumnae-i Network for Harvard Women (ANHWA).  Last year, with the idea of proposing fresh perceptions of celebrating women and girls, she curated an exhibition titled, “Domestic Provocations: Creativity as a Provocateur of Care and Vice Versa