Shafqat obtained a Ph.D. from the School of Forestry & Environmental Studies and the Department of Anthropology at Yale University, USA. He is from Pakistan and has worked in the Gilgit-Baltistan region of northern Pakistan. His PhD research was a historical ethnography of Hunza region in northern Pakistani, focusing on Victorian explorers’ encounters with local people during the era of the Great Game in the 19th c. Shafqat has also designed and initiated an innovative project for snow leopard conservation in northern Pakistan. In 2009, Shafqat won the National Geographic Emerging Explorer award for his work in the region.