Asmer Asrar Safi (he/him) is a Rhodes Scholar-Elect (2024) for Pakistan, and is currently pursuing an undergraduate honors degree in Social Studies, with a minor in Ethnicity, Migration and Human Rights at Harvard University. He is an incoming MPhil Candidate in Intellectual History at Merton College, at the University of Oxford.

Asmer also spent two terms at the University of Cambridge, pursuing coursework in Human, Social and Political Sciences (HSPS).

An aspiring historian, his academic work is centered on the intersection of progressive politics and religion in South Asia. In particular, he hopes to unravel the underpinnings of Islamic Socialism, and the ways in which it was articulated over the 20th Century. His senior thesis is focused on the political thought of Maulana Abdul Rahim Popalzai, a Muslim cleric known for leading peasant and labor movements in the Frontier Province of British India during the 1930s and 40s. He hopes to build on this work at Oxford University, starting next fall. Much of his coursework is based on intellectual history, politics, comparative literature and South Asia.

At Harvard, Asmer co-founded the South Asians for Forward-Thinking Advocacy and Research (SAFAR) initiative, serves as President of the Signet Society, and organizes with the Palestine Solidarity Committee.

Asmer is a multidisciplinary artist, with interests in music, documentary filmmaking, and visual art. He has prior experience working in various roles at think tanks, international development (ADB, World Bank), communications and new-media content production.