DIU professor appointed to Oxford University journal's editorial board

Dr Kudrat-E-Khuda Babu, Associate Dean and a professor at the Department of Law, Daffodil International University, has recently been appointed as a member of the editorial board of the journal Yearbook of International Environmental Law published by the University of Oxford.

According to Oxford University sources, over 500 journals are published under the Oxford University Press across various fields. In the editorial and advisory boards of these journals, there are four faculty members from Dhaka University and one each from Shahjalal University of Science and Technology (SUST) and Noakhali Science and Technology University (NSTU). However, among the faculty members of Bangladesh's private universities, Dr Kudrat-E-Khuda is the first and only to be selected as an editorial board member of an Oxford University journal.

Speaking about his latest appointment, Dr Babu admitted that the journey was not easy. Since the beginning of his teaching career, he has conducted over fifty internationally recognised research studies on topics surrounding the environment, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and cybersecurity. His research has been published in prestigious journals of Oxford, Cambridge, and McGill University Press, as well as top publishers like Springer, SAGE, Taylor & Francis, Routledge, and Thomson Reuters, many of which are indexed in Scopus and Web of Science. Dr Babu believes this body of work earned him his place on the editorial board at Oxford.

In June of last year, he was the only Bangladeshi delegate invited to an international conference on legal philosophy organised by the Faculty of Law at the University of Oxford. Later that year, he completed a professional fellowship on leadership management and conflict resolution at the University of Cambridge.

Previously, between 2020 and 2021, Dr Babu served as an associate member of the Centre for the Study of Global Human Movement at the University of Cambridge. During his time there, Dr Babu's name, photo, and profile were featured on Cambridge's official website, which was a matter of great pride for him.

Dr Babu was also nominated to participate in a programme at Harvard Law School on the Rohingya crisis. However, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, he could not attend the event in person and had to participate virtually. But this year, he has again been nominated for a Harvard University programme and is determined not to miss the opportunity.

At 42, Dr Babu has a long list of achievements, from junior scholarships to fellowships at prestigious universities and institutions. He is also one of three subject and discipline experts (law) selected by the Bangladesh Accreditation Council, an autonomous government agency responsible for the accreditation of higher education institutes and academic program-offering entities for quality assurance, leading to international recognition. Currently, Dr Babu serves as the country director of the Digital Society Project at North Dakota State University (USA), a research fellow at INTI International University (Malaysia) and Shinawatra University (Thailand), and an editorial board member for 12 peer-reviewed journals across Canada, the US, the UK, Germany, Saudi Arabia, India, and Turkey. He is also a visiting professor at the Lyceum of the Philippines University and Chandigarh University at a time.

Dr Babu's primary research areas involve environmental issues and cybersecurity. He has also conducted significant research on human rights topics such as the Rohingya crisis and human rights during the Covid-19 pandemic. His environmental studies include air pollution in the capital city of Bangladesh; water pollution; soil pollution; noise pollution; urban river pollution; e-waste and medical waste; the negative impacts of brick kilns and plastics on human health and the environment; the need for an international environmental court in the world; and so on. Regarding cybersecurity, his research covers the real state of cybersecurity in Bangladesh; its legal and institutional weaknesses; cybercrimes on social media; and challenges in adopting artificial intelligence in Bangladesh and ways to overcome them.

When asked which research he considers most notable, Dr Babu says, "Just as all children are dear to a mother, all my research work is equally valuable to me." However, he highlights one paper on the Rohingya issue published in 2020 in the Cogent Social Sciences – a Taylor & Francis journal – as it has been read by 54,391 researchers and remains one of the top 10 most-read papers in that journal.

Dr Babu also admits to failures in his research life, stating that without failures, success doesn't taste sweet. He began his research journey without any research-based courses in his undergraduate or master's education, which made the early days of his PhD quite difficult. Budget constraints and lack of sponsorship were other major challenges.

He went on to share an interesting story where after starting his PhD, a friend who had published a joint research paper in the IBS Journal mildly rebuked him, saying, "You're from law. What would you understand about research?" That small jibe deeply motivated him to pursue research later, and after that event, within six months, Dr Babu published a solo paper in the same journal on music and film piracy, proudly showing it first to that very friend and thanking him for the inspiration.

Dr Babu actively volunteers as a climate activist at Greenpeace International and a trainer for the Duke of Edinburgh's Award Foundation Bangladesh.

When asked for advice for young people and students, he urged them not to waste time and instead, acquire practical education and skills through planned efforts. He encourages them to pursue applied and research-oriented education, not only to uplift themselves but also to contribute to the country.

Born at Bagha thana of Rajshahi, Dr Babu lives with his wife, Khadiza Akter, son Shahir Kudrat Rafan, and daughter Sara Kudrat Fatima. Despite his busy schedule, he continues to write columns on different issues in different leading national dailies of Bangladesh. His son Rafan recently ranked third in the Dhaka regional Junior Competitive Programming Contest (JCPC). With his family, Dr. Babu dreams of a beautiful future for Bangladesh—a dream we all share.