Fahmida Zaman is a Ph.D. candidate in political science at the University of Delaware with a concentration in comparative politics and research methods. Her dissertation examines the rise of digital authoritarianism using a mixed-method approach and with a regional focus on South Asia. Her most recent publication is titled "Working Under the 'Sword of Damocles': Experiences of Journalists in a Hybrid Regime." She is the co-editor and contributing author to Political Violence in South Asia (Routledge, 2019). Her academic and non-academic writings on internet freedom, democratization, identity politics and social movements in Bangladesh have appeared in the Journal of African and Asian Studies, South Asia Journal, The National Interest, The Daily Star, the Star Weekend, the Dhaka Tribune and others. Zaman has taught at the Asian University for Women as well as at the Bangladesh Youth Leadership Center in Bangladesh.

Zaman is a research consultant with Freedom House and has worked with Wilson Center in Washington D.C. She participated in the Institute for Qualitative and Multi-Method Research summer school in 2022 at Syracuse University as well as the Center for Strategic and International Studies Journalism Bootcamp in December of 2021. She is a U.S. Department of State alumn.