Hilal Ahmed is interested in two broad areas of research: (a) political Islam and the evolution of Muslim modernities in South Asia and (b) politics of symbols in relation to visual culture. Ahmed has done his PhD on Politics of Monument and Memory in North India: A Study of Muslim Political Discourse on Jama Masjid and Babri Masjid from School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London (2007).

Ahmed has recently finished a project Environment of the Marginalized and the Marginalization of Environment: A Study of an Unofficial Waste Disposal site in East Delhi (2010-11) for the Indian Council for Social Science Research. He also produced a research based-report Conservation of Indo-Islamic Historic Buildings in India: An Evaluation of the Postcolonial Indian Conservation Policy and Legal Framework for the World Bank for its trans-regional project on Policies and Financial Mechanisms for Culture in Sustainable Development Learning Initiative (2008).

Ahmed has designed and conducted a course History, Memory and Identity for Researching the Contemporary Teaching Program of the CSDS (June-July 2010). He was the co-convenor for an undergraduate course on Colonial and Nationalism in India for University of Delhi (2008). Ahmed had designed a course on Contemporary Challenges of Muslim Societies for Syracuse University’s Muslim Cultures: Historical Diversity and Contemporary Realities program (2007). He was also involved in a training course on Basic Islamic Awareness for NGO professionals working in London (2006). Ahmed has taught Political Science at the University of Delhi.

Ahmed is currently working on three projects: (a) The Politics of Muslim Political Representation, which looks at the issues and debates on Muslim political representation in postcolonial India. This project is a part of Lokniti Program’s project on Democracy and New Publics (b) Mosques as Monuments: Memory, Islam and National Identity in Bangladesh. This project is funded by the Asian Scholarship Foundation. It examines the relationship between mosque architecture and the questions of political identities. (c) Ahmed is also editing two books: Kaviraj Reader (in Hindi), which is a part of the Lokchitak Granthmala series of CSDS, and Naubat-e-Panchroza (in Hindi with Mohammad Ahmad). He is also writing short-article related to Islam and Muslims for a forthcoming Encyclopedia of Social Science (in Hindi).

Ahmed has published essays, articles and commentaries in national and international journals, newspapers and websites. He writes in Hindi and English. In addition, he has produced a short documentary video entitled Encountering the Political Jama Masjid (18m, Colour, 2006) on different images of the Jama Masjid of Delhi

Ahmed was awarded the Ford Foundation IFP Fellowship for his doctoral work (2002-05). He also received the Asia Fellow Award (2010-11) for his Bangladesh project. Ahmed also selected for the Indian Institute of Advanced Studies Fellowship in 2008-09. He was the recipient of the Association for Third Sector Research- Charities Aid Foundation Fellowship 2001-2002 and the UGC Junior/Senior Research Fellowship (1997-2001).

A film Beacons of Hope, http://vimeo.com/5606982 based on the works of four selected IFP India Alumni (Moving Images, /the Ford Foundation International Fellowships Program Production, 2008, colour 25Min. English) has documented the struggles and achievements of Ahmed.