Centre for Iranian Studies Members
Centre Chair
Arshin Adib-Moghaddam
Centre Chair
International politics of West Asia; Iranian foreign and domestic politics; Critical theories of international relations; US foreign policy in the ‘third world’; Islamic political and intellectual history. - Tel: +44 (0)20 7898 4747
- Email: aa106@soas.ac.uk
- Room: 216
- Office Hours: 5-7 Tuesdays
Advisory Committee
Narguess Farzad
Advisory Committee Member
Persian language and literature. Organiser of SOAS-Cambridge Undergraduate workshops - Tel: 020 7898 4346
- Email: nf1@soas.ac.uk
- Room: 440
- Office Hours: Mondays 13:30 -14:30, Wednesdays 13:00- 14:00
Annabelle Sreberny
Advisory Committee Member
Middle East, especially Iran; gender and democratization; diasporic cultures; ‘small media’ and political change.
- Tel: +44 (0)20 7898 4422
- Email: as98@soas.ac.uk
- Room: 587
- Office Hours: Mondays 1-2pm or by email appointment
Sarah Stewart
Advisory Committee Member
Lecturer in Zoroastrianism, with particular reference to the living tradition in Iran and India. Convenor: Islam in Britain.
- Tel: +44 (0)20 7898 4270
- Email: ss7@soas.ac.uk
- Room: 331
- Office Hours: Thursdays 12-1pm
Iran Heritage Foundation (IHF) Visiting Fellow
Mohammad Maljoo
Iran Heritage Foundation (IHF) Visiting Fellow
Area of research focusses on the social and political agency of labour in relation to the oil industry in post-revolutionary Iran.
- Email: mm138@soas.ac.uk
Members
Peter Austin
Member
Typology, morpho-syntax, language documentation and description, historical linguistics, Lexical-Functional grammar, computer-aided linguistic analysis, Austronesian languages, Australian Aboriginal languages
- Tel: 020 7898 4586
- Email: pa2@soas.ac.uk
- Room: 363
- Office Hours: Tuesdays 14:00-15:00/Wednesdays 14:00-15:00
Doris Behrens-Abouseif
Member
Architecture of Cairo, the art and archaeology of Turkey, Iran and the Near East
- Tel: 020 7898 4455
- Email: da30@soas.ac.uk
- Room: B303
- Office Hours: Wednesdays 5-6pm
Teresa Bernheimer
Member
Islamic History to 1200; social history of elites in early Islam, especially 'Alid family; documentary and material evidence from Late Antiquity to early Islam; origins and development of Shi'ism; early Islamic Iran
- Tel: 020 7898 4605
- Email: tb31@soas.ac.uk
- Room: 306
- Office Hours: Mondays 3:30-5pm
Anna Contadini
Member
Arab and early Persian painting and the arts of the Islamic book in general, including the production of manuscripts of the Qur'an; art and material culture of the Islamic world; Fatimid art and architecture; the arts of Islamic Spain; artistic contacts between the Islamic World and Europe; aspects of contemporary Islamic art. - Tel: 020 7898 4458
- Email: ac24@soas.ac.uk
- Room: B306
- Office Hours: All Year (during term time) - Thursdays 2-3pm
William Gervase Clarence-Smith
Member
History of Islam, sexuality, diasporas, slavery, stimulants, rubber, livestock and textiles, with special reference to Maritime South East Asia - Tel: +44 (0)20 7898 4608
- Email: wc2@soas.ac.uk
- Room: 313
- Office Hours: Term 2 - Thursdays 3-5pm
François de Blois
Member
François de Blois has published extensively on Iranian and Semitic languages and literatures, as well as on the social and religious history of the Near East and Central Asia in pre-modern times. His books include "Persian literature, a bio-bibliographical survey. Volume V: Poetry of the pre-Mongol period", second, revised edition, 2004.
- Tel: 020 7898 4764
- Email: fb2@soas.ac.uk
- Room: 343
Heather Elgood
Member
Dr Heather Elgood is the Course Director of the Diploma in Asian Art. She is a specialist in Persian, Jain, Sultanate and Mughal manuscript painting as well as the ritual arts of Hinduism. - Tel: 020 7898 4445
- Email: he2@soas.ac.uk
- Room: B310
- Office Hours: Tuesdays 2-5pm or by email appointment
Hassan Hakimian
Member
Human Resources; Demography; Trade Policy & Regional Integration; Energy and Natural Resources with reference to the MENA region.
- Tel: 020 7898 4475
- Email: hh2@soas.ac.uk
- Room: M108
Jan-Peter Hartung
Member
- Tel: +44 (0)20 7898 4383
- Email: Jh74@soas.ac.uk
- Room: 333
- Office Hours: Wednesdays 12:30-2:30pm
Almut Hintze
Member
Dr Hintze takes an interest in all aspects of Zoroastrianism, the religion of pre-Islamic Iran.
- Tel: 020 7898 4598
- Email: ah69@soas.ac.uk
- Room: 334
- Office Hours: Tuesdays 12-1pm (and by Appointment)
Erica Hunter
Member
Eastern Christianity; Syriac Christianity in the Middle East, with particular reference to Iraq; Syriac Christianity in medieval Central Asia and China
- Tel: 020 7898 4663
- Email: eh9@soas.ac.uk
- Room: 339
- Office Hours: By Email Appointment
Massoud Karshenas
Member
Middle East economics, Oil and economic development, Global poverty and growth, labour markets and structural adjustment. - Tel: 020 7898 4535
- Email: mk@soas.ac.uk
- Room: 268
- Office Hours: Tuesdays 12pm - 2pm
Hugh N Kennedy
Member
Medieval history of Arabic-speaking lands.
- Tel: 020 7898 4251
- Email: hk1@soas.ac.uk
- Room: 436
- Office Hours: Mondays 14:00-15:00 / Thursdays 11:30-12:30
George Lane
Member
Current research concerns the presence of Persians in Yuan (Mongol) China. Teaching concentrates on Mediaeval Persia. Involved in IFCELS with the Lord Chancellor's programme for Chinese Lawyers since the early 90s as well as pre-sessionals and ELAS. - Tel: 020 7898 4285
- Email: gl1@soas.ac.uk
- Room: 303
- Office Hours: All Year - Fridays 1:30-3:30pm (during term time)
Nima Mina
Member
Classical and Modern Persian literature, Orientalism in 18th-20th century Europe, Middle Eastern minority writers in Europe, Diaspora studies, music performance, translation studies - Tel: 020 7898 4315
- Email: nm46@soas.ac.uk
- Room: 422
- Office Hours: Tuesdays 13:00-15:00 / Thursdays 11:00-13:00
Simon Morley
Member
Teaching interests: international business, Persian administration, fiscal governance, Confucian governance, examining and supervising post-graduate research. Previously worked in Asia, Europe and USA.
- Tel: 020 7898 4848
- Email: sm104@soas.ac.uk
Dan Plesch
Member
Applied International Relations, weapons of mass destruction, diplomacy, globalisation and corporate accountability, globalisation and democracy, globalisation and energy, the role of international non-governmental organisations, the United Nations and the Nazis.
- Tel: 020 7898 4840
- Email: dp27@soas.ac.uk
- Room: 4426
Elaheh Rostami-Povey
Member
Iran, Afghanistan and the Middle East, in particular gender issues in Iran. Women’s employment, feminism, war, conflict, diaspora, Iran in the Middle East.
- Email: ep2@soas.ac.uk
Nicholas Sims-Williams
Member
Iranian and Central Asian philology; Christian and Manichaean texts from Central Asia. - Email: ns5@soas.ac.uk
Renate Söhnen-Thieme
Member
Sanskrit language and literature; classical Indian religions; folklore and music of Baltistan - Tel: 020 7898 4293
- Email: rs2@soas.ac.uk
- Room: 376
Anicee Van Engeland
Member
- Tel: 0207 898 4646
- Email: av5@soas.ac.uk
- Room: 255
- Office Hours: Monday 15:00 - 16:00 + Wednesday 14:00 - 15:00
Gabriele vom Bruck
Member
Middle East with emphasis on the Arabian Peninsular (especially Yemen): elites, memory, religion and politics
- Tel: 020 7898 4408
- Email: gb19@soas.ac.uk
- Room: 585
- Office Hours: By Email Appointment
Burzine K Waghmar
Member
Indo-Iranian History, Historical Geography and Philology (Avestan, Old Persian, Parthian, Pahlavi, Sanskrit, Hindi, Gujarati, Marathi, Urdu, Pashto, Balochi and Kashmiri); Languages and Religions of Late Antiquity and the Silk Road (Bactrian, Khotanese, Sogdian, contacts among Zoroastrianism, Manichaeism and early Islam); Pakistan studies (Ancient and early Medieval History, Dardic and Nuristani dialectology, ethnography and topography of NWFP, FATA, Northern Areas and Trans-Karakoram Tract); Pakistani minorities; HUMINT counterterrorism and linguistic analysis; South Asian Muslim psycho-sociology; Muslim non-Muslim relations (Iran, Pakistan, Bangladesh).
- Email: bw3@soas.ac.uk
- Office Hours: Thursdays and Fridays
Owen Wright
Member
Music of the Islamic Middle East; historical musicology - Tel: 020 7898 4334
- Email: ow@soas.ac.uk
- Room: 503
- Office Hours: Tuesdays 11am-1pm
Saeed Zeydabadi-Nejad
Member
- Tel: 020 7898 4422
- Email: sz10@soas.ac.uk
- Room: 587
- Office Hours: Fridays 1-2pm
Associate Members
Denis Hermann
Associate Member
Historian and senior research fellow in the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), I am mostly working on the social and intellectual history of Twelver Shi’ism in Iran during the 19th century and the first decade of the 20th century.
- Email: dnshermann@gmail.com
Laetitia Nanquette
Associate Member
Contemporary Persian literature, circulation of literature and culture between Iran and the Iranian diasporas, the relations between Iran and the West, Persian literature and globalization.
Hossein Shahidi
Associate Member
Interests include: Public service communication, especially for the promotion of healthcare, education and gender equality; Media professionalism, media accessibility, and media usage, especially in the Islamic world; History of the media; Iranian politics, economy, history and culture; Global energy and the Middle East
- Email: hosseinshahidi@hotmail.com
Richard Tapper
Associate Member
Lecturer, Reader and Professor in SOAS 1967-2004; fieldwork in Iran, Afghanistan, Turkey; published on pastoral nomadism, ethnic and tribal minorities and the state, material cultures, culinary cultures, anthropology of Islam, Iranian Cinema.
- Email: rt3@soas.ac.uk
Massoumeh Torfeh
Associate Member
Massoumeh Torfeh, has been appointed UN Director of Strategic Communication and Spokesperson for Afghanistan and is a former senior producer in BBC World Service, specializes on the politics and media of Iran, Afghanistan and Central Asia.
- Email: mt69@soas.ac.uk
PhD Student Associate Members
Seyed Ali Alavi
PhD Student Associate Member
My main researches and interests are around Middle East Politics, European (Central EU) and British and American Politics. Also I am interested in cultural issues and cultural identity politics. I speak English, Arabic, Farsi (Persian), Azeri, Kurdish and some understanding of Hebrew.
- Email: 221666@soas.ac.uk
Ali Fathollah-Nejad
PhD Student Associate Member
International relations; 21st-century world order; diplomacy; peace and conflict studies.
- Email: afn@soas.ac.uk
Benjamin Petrini
PhD Student Associate Member
Political scientist with 5 years of experience at the World Bank on peacebuilding policies in fragile and conflict-affected countries. Conducted research and provided technical assistance on conflict analysis, forced displacement, and linkages between different forms of violence to advance the agenda of conflict prevention in the World Bank’s operations.
- Email: b_petrini@soas.ac.uk
