Professor Dr. Amra Raza is the Director, Institute of English Studies and former Dean, Faculty of Arts and Humanities. She was also the former Chair of Department of English Language and Literature. It is through her efforts that the Department has evolved to an ‘Institute of English Studies’ in 2021. The Regular PhD programme in this institution was initiated in 2004 and Dr. Amra Raza has the honour of being the first Ph.D. in English of this programme. She has an MA in English Literature, as well as an MA in Linguistics with a first class first position in both. She is a researcher, creative writer and English Language Teacher Trainer. She holds the National Jane Townsend Poetry Prize (1990) for her poem ‘A Nights Swim’ and is the Co-editor of Voices and Visions: Young Writers from Pakistan (2008) published by University Oxford Press. She has 36 research papers published in national and international Journals to her credit. Prof. Dr. Amra Raza’s Book titled “Spatial Constructs in Alamgir Hashmi’s Poetry: A Critical Study” has been published abroad. She has written not only, the Introduction to M. Athar Tahir’s poetry collection “Yielding Years, but also the Foreword to Dr. Ahmed Ejaz’s book ‘United States’ Crisis Preventive Diplomacy Towards Pakistan and India’ which is in the process of publication. Her poems have been published in The South Asian Review University of Pittsburgh, Johnstown, as well as in The Pakistan Academy of Letters. Besides supervising 04 PhD and 30 MPhil theses, Dr Raza has also supervised numerous BS, as well as ELT theses. As teacher trainer she has conducted many seminars/workshops on ELT and Applied Linguistics related areas and as Chair, English she has hosted numerous seminars and lectures in her department in interdisciplinary and market skills-oriented areas so as to produce well rounded students ready to take on the job market. She has not only hosted, but also participated and completed HEC Projects related to Teacher Training. Besides being on a number of committees formulating policies at the national and University level, she has also edited low priced books for M.A. students from low-income groups.
As former Chairperson of the English Department, she initiated and supervised the construction of the BS Undergraduate Block, and launched the B.S. in English (4 Year) Programme in 2014. Her leadership has promoted research culture resulting in the largest representation of PU English Department teachers at national / international conferences and research journals in the history of the Institute of English Studies from 2011 to 2021. Under her administration the number of PhD faculty in the Institute has increased from 01 in 2011 to a total of 08 in 2023 (with 03 more teachers completing their PhD’s abroad at present). She has also initiated Social and Community Service awareness at the department which now sponsors the education of one underprivileged child for a year by holding annual funfairs for charity.