Sanaa Alimia is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the Aga Khan University, Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations, London. She holds a PhD from SOAS, London and an MSc from the London School of Economics. She is the author of Refugee Cities: How Afghan Refugees Transformed Urban Pakistan (Penn Press 2022). Alongside academic publications, Sanaa also writes in the media and in the policy worlds.

Sanaa has previously held positions as a Visiting Associate Professor at the University of Peshawar (2013 to 2018), a Dahlem Research Fellow at the Berlin Graduate School of Muslim Societies and Cultures, Free University, Berlin and the Leibniz Zentrum Moderner Orient (2014 to 2016), and a Research Fellow at the Leibniz Zentrum Moderner Orient (2016 to 2019).

Her current British Academy funded project examines Digital Borders, Bodies, and Mobility in South Asia.

Her research has three strands of focus: migration, conflict, and urbanity. Her methodological approach uses ethnography, storytelling, and using social histories.