Shahwar is a PhD candidate in ethnomusicology interested in music and Muslim belonging in South Asia across space, time, and media. Her currently ongoing research blends multiperspectival ethnographic and historiographical methods to study the relations between performance, listenership, and patronage networks of music cultures rooted to Muslim shrine spaces in Awadh. She has an MA in Film Studies from Jadavpur University, Calcutta, and an MPhil in Cinema Studies from Jawaharlal Nehru University, (JNU), Delhi. At JNU she wrote her dissertation on Qawwali in Contemporary South Asian Popular Cultures mapping the proliferation of qawwali music across the Muslim pilgrimage space, Bollywood, and Coke Studio Pakistan. Views reflecting her research are available as articles on Firstpost and Economic and Political Weekly and as a podcast on Ergo Masala Studios.

Teaching experience: In India, she has taught as an assistant professor of film and media sciences in Calcutta. At UCLA she has assisted in teaching courses on jazz in American culture, music and media, and Bollywood music.

Leadership experience:
Vice President: HASOM Graduate Student Council, GSC, 2022-23.
President: Ethnomusicology Graduate Student Organization, EGSO, 2021-22.