Degree

Master of Science in Journalism

Faculty / School

School of Economics and Social Sciences (SESS)

Supervisor

Shahzeb Ahmed Hashim, Lecturer, Centre for Excellence in Journalism (CEJ)

Project Type

MSJ Capstone

Keywords

Karachi, Urban Memory, Goan Christian Community, Identity, Belonging

Abstract / Summary

This multimedia long form capstone project explores the layered history and evolving identity of Karachi history through the lived experiences and memories of the Goan Christian Community. Once an integral part of the city’s social, cultural, and institutional fabric, the Goans contributed significantly to Karachi’s development in education, healthcare, administration, music, and sport. Through in-depth interviews, archival research, and field reporting, this study reconstructs a Karachi shaped by coexistence, pluralism, and a shared sense of belonging across religious and cultural lines. At its core, this project is guided by a central question: what does it mean to belong to a city that is constantly changing> by foregrounding personal narratives? The study examines how belonging is negotiated, remembered and sometimes lost amid migration, urban transformation, and shifting socio-political realities. It reflects on how communities sustain connections to place even as their physical presence diminishes, and how memory itself becomes a site of continuity. Positioning nostalgia not merely as longing but as a form of historical insight, the project captures the tension between Karachi once was and the one that exists today. It argues that belonging is not fixed, but continually reshaped through memory, identity, and lived experience. By combining narrative storytelling with multimedia elements, this work contributes to contemporary journalism by documenting underrepresented histories and highlighting the role of community memory, while questioning whether Karachi can reclaim its pluralistic ethos by reconnecting with its past.

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This research is openly accessible under CC By 4.0.

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