Asad Haider

Asad Haider (June 2, 1987 – December 4, 2025) was an American political theorist known for his critiques of contemporary identity politics and his work in the Marxist and historical materialist traditions.

Early life and education

Haider was born June 2, 1987, in State College, Pennsylvania. Jawaid Haider, his father, taught architecture at Penn State. His mother, Talat Azhar, became an academic administrator. His parents were immigrants from Pakistan, the family spoke Urdu at home, and Haider spent summers with other family members in Karachi.

He received his bachelor's degree from Cornell University in 2009. In 2011, he became founding editor of the Marxist annual journal Viewpoint Magazine together with the historian Salar Mohandesi, beginning with an issue on the Occupy Wall Street movement. He studied in the history of consciousness program at the University of California, Santa Cruz and graduated with his Ph.D. in 2018.

After an Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship in the philosophy department at Penn State, Haider became a visiting assistant professor of philosophy at the New School for Social Research in New York City.

Articles