Komal Niazi is a cultural anthropologist and postdoctoral fellow at East China Normal University, where she received Shanghai’s prestigious Super Postdoctoral Fellowship. She earned her PhD with honors from Sun Yat-sen University and works at the intersections of political, environmental, and developmental anthropology, focusing on China-Pakistan relations and South Asia’s place in global connectivity. Her research examines the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), analyzing how large-scale infrastructure projects reshape environmental justice, cultural memory, food systems, and local identities. By integrating ethnographic methods with critical heritage, climate change, and development studies, she highlights how community resilience and cultural heritage—local voices from local community- intersect with contemporary development outcomes. Renowned for her decolonial and critical perspective on Asian connectivity, she foregrounds the voices of communities living in the shadow of megaprojects, positioning them as active agents in shaping more just and sustainable futures.