Uzma Quraishi is Associate​ ​Professor of History at Sam Houston State University. Dr. Quraishi is an award-winning historian of the twentieth century United States with areas of specialization in immigration and ethnicity, and Cold War foreign relations.

Dr. Quraishi's current book-length project, “US Soft Power in Pakistan during the Cold War,” delves deeply into the US psychological initiative in Pakistan from 1945 to 1969.

Her first book, Redefining the Immigrant South: Indian and Pakistani Immigration to Houston during the Cold War, was published in May 2020 by UNC Press in their series New Directions in Southern Studies. The book examines the significance of race, ethnicity, and class for Asian immigrants as a window into the post-Jim Crow South. It was awarded the Theodore Saloutos Book Award (IEHS) for the best book in U.S. immigration history, Best History Book Award (AAAS), and Honorable Mention for the Pacific Coast Branch Book Award (AHA PCB).

Her work can also be found in the Journal of Social History, Diplomatic History, and the Journal of American Ethnic History, among other publication venues. Her research has been generously supported by a grant from the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations (SHAFR) and a fellowship jointly sponsored by the African American Library at the Gregory School with the CERCL program at Rice. Dr. Quraishi was a Summerlee Fellow for the Study of Texas History at the Clements Center for Southwest Studies at Southern Methodist University in 2016–17.

Dr. Quraishi holds a Ph.D. in history from Rice University and earned a B.A. and M.A. from the University of Houston.