About Me

In a Nutshell: I’m Yousuf. I teach philosophy, I care a lot about education, and I’m especially into critical thinking that actually shows up in real decisions. I also do photography and I’m big on community building. I enjoy travelling and trying new food. Sushi is still my favourite. My escape is gaming and building automations for my smart home.

What I Do Now: I’m a Lecturer at Aga Khan University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) in Karachi, Pakistan. My work sits at the intersection of philosophy and education, with a practical focus: how we help students do critical thinking in a way that actually travels beyond the classroom. I teach Critical Thinking and Epistemology, along with Philosophy of Science and Philosophy of Mathematics. I’m especially interested in what makes discussion and judgment work well in real classrooms.

A big part of my work is building supports that make good teaching scalable. I designed and launched an In-House Teaching Assistant Training Program at AKU, where upper-year undergraduates are trained as facilitators and tutorial leaders. At FAS, we piloted it, iterated it, and strengthened it with professionalism and boundaries training. That work is now moving toward a more formal, certified pathway with AKU’s Quality Teaching and Learning team, so it can be adopted and adapted without having to reinvent everything from scratch.

In parallel, I’m co-developing an asynchronous micro-credential in Critical Thinking and Digital Media Literacy through AKU’s LEADS initiative. It’s a different learning environment with different rules of engagement, feedback, and assessment. It’s been a helpful way to think more seriously about what critical thinking looks like in online settings and public information environments.

What I’m Researching: I’m currently researching a high-stakes question: When universities invest in critical thinking across curricula, what helps students carry it into real institutional and public decisions, and what blocks that outcome even when teaching is serious? I’m especially interested in the gaps that come after the “tools” stage: communicating reasons across disagreement and turning judgment into coordinated action. My goal is to produce practical supports and design principles that educators and teaching-support systems can actually use, especially in Pakistan and comparable contexts.

Previously: Before returning to Pakistan, I studied and worked in Canada for 16 years. I completed BA in Philosophy and Mathematics at Concordia University. I completed my MA in Philosophy at Western University and also completed doctoral coursework in Philosophy at the same institution. I served for 7.5 years as a graduate TA (tutorial leader), supporting undergraduate teaching across multiple philosophy courses. I also did public and school outreach to make philosophy and science feel accessible, and I served in graduate leadership as Vice President Advocacy for the Society of Graduate Students at Western, representing around 7,000 graduate students across 60 plus departments.