Shuchi Karim talks about change and aspirations. She explores through her academic research work, teaching and activism. Karim has recently completed her PhD from International Institute of Social Studies, Erasmus University Rotterdam in The Hague, The Netherlands. She currently works as a researcher and advisor at Institute of Educational Development (IED), BRAC University. At IED, she has developed a low cost secondary school model, where aspects of gender, Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) and psychosocial counseling are combined as integral parts of development of adolescents' lives. She also teaches Feminist Theory at BRAC University. As a researcher, she writes about how gender and sexuality is practiced in different spaces such as urban landscapes, cyberspaces, how LGB (lesbian, gay, bisexual) support groups work and on issues and politics around gender and disability.

Karim juggles and enjoys both academic and activist work. Through teaching, she loves seeing any kind of change among her students. “Teaching Gender is like being an optician. You get to fix people's lenses and way of seeing life,” she says. She finds her work at IED grounded as she gets to have a direct impact in lives of adolescents. She believes in applying and using scholarly knowledge in contextual ways. “I also believe movements and activisms need an academic backing, because one can create more buzz and circulate and conceptualize issues more through a merging of the two areas.”

Karim, through her work, questions norms and wants to ensure environments where members in society can thrive. “Everyone's existence matters, and everyone is significant, and one's identity should not be written off that oppressive customs in society often do,” she says. Karim wants to travel more and see the world, believes in dreaming and says, “It is not important to go very far, but as far as one wants to go.”