Qainat Khan

Qainat Khan covers the Rutgers Houses on Manhattan’s Lower East Side.

She is a journalist and musician, who strives to bring about social change through her work.

After spending the first nine years of her life in Tanzania, Qainat’s family moved to Fresno, Calif., where she spent her teenage years. She then moved to Maine to do a dual degree in music and gender studies at Colby College, graduating in 2011. For Qainat, study imitates life. She is a keen pianist and cellist and has a passion for a variety of music. She is also particularly interested in a variety of gender issues, particularly those that affect the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender communities. Not wanting to let either side of her personality feel deprived, she recently completed a thesis exploring the Queer Narratives in West Side Story.

Qainat’s passion for these subjects led her to journalism. She felt it would be the best way for her to provide a voice to the voiceless and to help right social wrongs. Having spent time in India teaching English in a school, she is keen to return there once her studies at Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism conclude, in order to undertake some longer journalistic explorations of Indian life and culture.

Qainat’s ultimate dream is to travel the world exposing hidden stories for National Geographic while spending her down time on her 10-acre farm somewhere in the wilds of Maine.

You can follow Qainat on Twitter @qainat_khan.