Jasmeen Kanwal

Writing

Nonfiction

Reform’s toxic thinking has infected Scottish politics, Opinion piece for The Guardian, May 2026. Download PDF
Grandma COBOL’s endlessly growing tree, Blog for The Royal Society, March 2026.
Connecting with my ancestors: the living, not the dead. Blog for the Scottish BPOC Writers Network (SBWN), February 2026.
Race is not a biological category: challenging this misconception will help tackle racism in healthcare. The BMJ, January 2026. Download PDF
Why diversity in science really matters, Blog for The Royal Society, October 2025.
Young people’s views on computing education, Guest Blog for Mission Encodeable, September 2025.
Tackling misinformation is a long game: here’s how science journalists can help. ABSW, July 2025.
How Scottish schools are being equipped for AI-based learning, in TES Magazine, May 2025. download pdf
A Curiosity-led Approach to Data Literacy, cover feature in Hello World issue 24, July 2024.
Spreading the word on data education. Blog post for Data Education in Schools programme, July 2023.
Readying Learners for a Data-Driven World, in SSERC STEM Bulletin issue 278, March 2023.

Fiction

The Voyager. Winner of the Six-Minute Reads Flash Fiction Competition, and published by Edinburgh UNESCO City of Literature in the Six-Minute Reads collection, October 2026.

Poetry

Tyrannical Light, in Consilience Issue 22: Waves, September 2025.

Selected Academic Writing

Kanwal et al. “Zipf’s law of abbreviation and the principle of least effort.” Cognition 165 (2017): 45-52.
Word length and the Principle of
Least Effort. PhD Thesis, University of Edinburgh (2017). Read Lay Summary
Kanwal & Gardner. “Population viscosity promotes altruism under density-dependent dispersal.” Proceedings of the Royal Society B 289.1970 (2022).
Kanwal & Ritchart. “An experimental investigation of tonogenesis in Punjabi.” Proceedings of ICPhS 18 (2015).