Centre for Migration and Diaspora Studies at SOAS: Members

Parvathi Raman

Chair, Centre for Migration and Diaspora Studies

The Indian Community in South Africa; Politics and identity in South Africa; African and Asian Communities in Britain; Political and cultural issues in Diaspora Studies; Historical anthropology; Philosophical issues in anthropology.

Tel: 020 7898 4434
Email: pr1@soas.ac.uk
Room: 571
Office Hours: Wednesdays 11am-1pm or by Appointment

Tania Kaiser

Deputy Chair, Centre for Migration & Diaspora Studies

East Africa, particularly Uganda and Sudan, West Africa, Sri Lanka; conflict and development; forced migration; refugees; humanitarian interventions

Tel: 020 7898 4484
Email: tk51@soas.ac.uk
Room: 290
Office Hours: Monday 2-4pm

Gilbert Achcar

Member

Political economy and sociology of globalisation; global power structure and grand strategy; empire theory and US hegemony; politics and development of the Middle East and North Africa; sociology of religion; Islam and Islamic Fundamentalism; social change and social theory.

Tel: 020 7898 4557
Email: ga3@soas.ac.uk
Room: 292b
Office Hours: Monday 2-4pm

Fiona Adamson

Member

International Relations Theory; International Security; Migration and Diaspora Mobilization; Globalisation and Global Governance; Transnational Identity Movements

Tel: +44 (0)20 7898 4683
Email: fa33@soas.ac.uk
Room: 212
Office Hours: Weds. 1-3, or by appointment

Nadje Al-Ali

Member

Women & gender in the Middle East; women’s movements and feminism in Middle East; secularism and Islamism; transnational migration, diaspora mobilization; gendering violence, war and peace; history of Iraqi women; impact of sanctions, war and occupation on Iraqi women, Iraq.

Tel: +44 (0)20 7898 4547
Email: n.s.al-ali@soas.ac.uk
Room: 452A
Office Hours: Tuesday 10am-12pm

Diamond Ashiagbor

Member

Labour law; equality and anti-discrimination law; human rights; equality and multiculturalism; European Union law; the law and economics of labour market regulation; labour law; trade and development.

Tel: 0207 898 4246
Email: da40@soas.ac.uk
Room: 537
Office Hours: Thursday 11.00 - 13.00

Mashood Baderin

Member

Islamic Law, International and Comparative Human Rights Law, Public International Law, Human Rights & Islamic Law, especially interaction between International Law, Human Rights Law, and Islamic Law in Muslim States. Appointed as Independent Expert on the Situation of Human Rights in the Sudan by the UN Human Rights Council at its 19th Session on 23rd March 2012.

Tel: 020 7898 4715
Email: mb78@soas.ac.uk
Room: 220
Office Hours: by email appointment
On Sabbatical:2012-13

Jing Bian

Member

Financial Regulation, International Economic Law, Chinese Law, Corporate Governance, Cross-border Mergers and Aquisitions

Email: jb72@soas.ac.uk

Julie Botticello

Member

I have recently completed my doctorate in Anthropology at UCL, under the supervision of Professors Mike Rowlands and Danny Miller, on the materialization of wellbeing among Yoruba-Nigerians in London, in which the practices of using healing foods (ingestible materials with both material and immaterial qualities) became a significant feature of wellbeing attainment in migration.

Email: jb81@soas.ac.uk

Vladimir I Braginsky

Member

Malay and Indonesian classical and modern literature and culture; Islam in the Malay-Indonesian world; Islamic literature of South East Asia; comparative study of South East Asian literatures; Malay philology and traditional literature sufism in Malay literature

Tel: 020 7898 4245
Email: vb1@soas.ac.uk

Crispin Branfoot

Member

Architecture, sculpture and painting in South Asia, especially in southern India; pilgrimage and sacred geography; material religion; colonialism and material culture.

Tel: 020 7898 4450
Email: crispin.branfoot@soas.ac.uk
Room: B311
Office Hours: Mondays 3-4pm (during term time)

James R Brennan

History of urbanisation and nationalism in modern East Africa; Indian ocean diasporas

Email: jb2@soas.ac.uk

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: Term 2 - Mondays 3-5pm

William Gervase Clarence-Smith

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

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

Christopher Cramer

Africa: economics of Africa, political economy of development, political economy of war and peace in southern Africa, and the economics of cashew production, processing and trade

Tel: +44 (0)20 7898 4492
Email: cc10@soas.ac.uk
Room: 288
Office Hours: Thursday 11-1

Bhavna Davé

Member

Kazakhstan: politics of language, ethnicity and nationalism in post-Soviet countries

Tel: 020 7898 4734
Email: bd4@soas.ac.uk
Room: 224
Office Hours: 2-4pm Wednesdays

Lindiwe Dovey

African film and video (particularly their intersection); filmic mediations of African performance arts (music, dance, theatre); literary adaptation in Africa; contemporary film theory and 'World Cinema'; exile/immigration and violence in relation to African screen media; structures of film production, distribution, and exhibition in Africa; use of African languages in film

Tel: 020 7898 4388
Email: ld18@soas.ac.uk
Room: 404
On Sabbatical:2012-13

Catriona Drew

Member

Public International Law; international legal history (particularly self-determination of peoples), and legal theory

Tel: 020 7898 4482
Email: cd4@soas.ac.uk
Room: 533
Office Hours: Wed 4:30 to 5:30 (Law); Thurs 4:00 to 5:00 (CISD)

Lucy Durán

Music of the Manding Cultural area; the development of popular music in post-independent Africa; the interconnections between African and Caribbean music; Afro-Latin Caribbean music. Also teaches in the Department of the Languages and Cultures of Africa.

Tel: 020 7898 4374
Email: ld@soas.ac.uk
Room: 596
Office Hours: Wednesdays 3-5pm

Rachel Dwyer

Member

Hindi Cinema; Indian popular culture; Indian film; Hinduism; new middle classes; Mumbai/Bombay; Gujarati language and literature; Gujarati diaspora esp UK and East Africa; comparative Indian literature.

Tel: 020 7898 4294
Email: rd3@soas.ac.uk
Room: 457
On Sabbatical:2012-13, Terms 1 & 2

Kai Easton

Member

Colonial and postcolonial studies, especially South African literature (the Cape, Wicomb, Coetzee); gender and the culture of travel; Indian Ocean diasporas; theories of fiction and history.

Tel: 020 7898 4373
Email: ke@soas.ac.uk
Room: 409
Office Hours: Tuesdays 11:00-12:00/Thursdays 15:00-16:00

Rossella Ferrari

Member

Contemporary Chinese drama and film; theory and practice of the avant-garde; transnational Chinese culture

Tel: 020 7898 4047
Email: rf24@soas.ac.uk
Room: 399a
Office Hours: Term 2 Mondays 12:00 - 14:00

Reza Gholami

Member

The secular; non-Islamiosity; migration and diaspora; Islam (especially Shi`ism and Sufism); religious experience; the Iranian community in London; education; self-making; diasporic art and media.

Email: rg32@soas.ac.uk
Room: 571
Office Hours: Fridays 2-3pm

Paul Gifford

Christianity; recent developments in African Christianity; the socio-political role of religion in Africa Socio-political role of Christianity in Africa; Africa's new charismatic churches

Tel: 020 7898 4773
Email: pg@soas.ac.uk
Room: 343

Chege Githiora

Swahili and Gĩkũyũ Language and Linguistics. Translation and Literacy in African Languages. Culture and Society of East Africa, Latin America and the African Diaspora.

Tel: 020 7898 4395
Email: cg17@soas.ac.uk
Room: 412
On Sabbatical:2012-13

Charles Gore

Member

Visual culture of West Africa and the Caribbean

Tel: 020 7898 4443
Email: cg2@soas.ac.uk
Room: B305
Office Hours: Term 2 - Wednesdays 2-4pm (1st 2 weeks of term)
On Sabbatical:Sabbatical Term 2 2012-13

Laura Hammond

Africa; Horn of Africa; refugees and forced migration; post-conflict social integration; violence and conflict analysis; humanitarianism and humanitarian assistance; globalisation, transnationalism, diasporas and remittances; famine and food security; livelihoods in emergency contexts.

Tel: 020 7898 4654
Email: lh4@soas.ac.uk
Room: 371
Office Hours: Wednesday 10am-12pm

Adam Hanieh

Political economy; labour migration; Middle East politics; Gulf Cooperation Council; migration development and remittances class and state formation internationalisation Palestine.

Tel: 020 7898 4784
Email: ah92@soas.ac.uk
Room: 4413
Office Hours: Thursday 3-5

Jane Harrigan

Member

International finance for development and the economic reform programmes associated with IMF and World Bank finance to developing countries; the links between macro-economic policy and agricultural performance in sub-Saharan Africa; the gender dimensions of economic liberalisation and globalisation; and the political economy of economic reform in the Middle East and North Africa. Cross-cutting these subject areas are two geographical areas of specialisation, namely sub-Saharan Africa, with a focus on Ghana and Eastern and Southern Africa, and the Middle East and North Africa.

Tel: 020 7898 4537
Email: jh66@soas.ac.uk
Room: 281
Office Hours: By appointment only

Hermione Harris

Member

Tel: 020 7226 6465
Email: hh10@soas.ac.uk

Rachel Harris

Member

Ethnomusicology; musics of China and Central Asia, especially Uyghur; recorded music; music and ritual, music, identity and politics

Tel: 020 7898 4513
Email: rh@soas.ac.uk
Room: 513
On Sabbatical:Research Leave 2012-13

Catherine Hezser

Member, Centre for Migration and Diaspora Studies

Tel: 020 7898 4633
Email: ch12@soas.ac.uk
Room: 335
Office Hours: Thursdays 10-11am

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)

Keith Howard

Director, Centre for Music and Dance Performance Research

Member

Keith Howard is an ethnomusicologist, musicologist and anthropologist. He is particularly interested in how people use and talk about music, and his work explores music and religion, composition, education, preservation and sustainability, commodification and commercialisation, traditions, and musical futures.  He is the author or editor of 16 books and more than 100 articles. He founded the SOASIS CD and DVD label and was founder and licensee of OpenAir Radio. He writes primarily about the music and culture of Korea, though he has also researched and published on the music of Kyrgyzstan, Nepal, Siberia, Thailand, and Siberia.

Tel: 020 7898 4687
Email: kh@soas.ac.uk
Room: 515
Office Hours: Tuesdays 11am-12pm, Fridays 2-3pm

Bruce Ingham

Member

General descriptive linguistics, Arabic, Persian, North American Indian languages, dialects and oral literature of the Arabian Peninsula - in particular the dialects of the Arabian bedouin, covering the dialects of the Al Dhafir, Mutair, Al Murrah and Rwalah tribes; Lakota (Siouan), Cree (Algonquian)

Email: bi1@soas.ac.uk

Naila Kabeer

Member

Gender; Work and Labour; Livelihoods; Social Protection; Microfinance; Specialising in the following regions: Central and South Asia; South East Asia.

Tel: 020 7898 4488
Email: nk34@soas.ac.uk
Room: 291
Office Hours: Wednesday 11-1

Karima Laachir

Member

Literary and cultural studies: postcolonial studies, diaspora studies and comparative literature

Tel: 020 7898 4336
Email: kl19@soas.ac.uk
Room: 365
Office Hours: Wednesdays 10:00-12:00

Anna Lindley

Member

Migration, livelihoods and development processes; conflict, forced displacement and refugee issues; transnationalism and remittances; migration policy; mobility, education and skills.

Tel: 0207 898 4690
Email: al29@soas.ac.uk
Room: 298
On Sabbatical:On maternity leave 2012-2013

Nima Mina

Centre 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

Paolo Novak

Member

Trans-nationality with particular reference to migration; refugee regime; borders and NGOs.

Tel: 020 7898 4214
Email: pn4@soas.ac.uk
Room: 368
Office Hours: Tuesday 11am-1pm (terms 1 & 2)

John Parker

Early modern and modern West African history, especially social and political history of Ghana

Tel: 020 7898 4635
Email: jp23@soas.ac.uk
Room: 305
Office Hours: Term 2 - Mondays 9am-12pm

Ruba Salih

Member

Gender, Islam and modernity in the Middle East and Europe; Islamic feminism, secular and religious women’s movements in the Middle East, transnational migration and gender; multiculturalism and citizenship; Islam in Europe, globalization; disapora and refugee studies; the Palestine question.

Tel: +44 (0)20 7898 4245
Email: ruba.salih@soas.ac.uk
Room: 471
Office Hours: Thursday 1-3pm

Edward Simpson

Member

Islam in South Asia; politics, ethnography, and society of Gujarat; social theory and the western Indian Ocean; the ethnography of reconstruction after catastrophic natural disasters

Tel: 020 7898 4481
Email: es7@soas.ac.uk
Room: 589
Office Hours: Term 2 - Research Leave, email to make appointment

Gurharpal Singh

Member

Professor Gurharpal Singh is the Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities and Professor in Inter-Religious Relation and Development in the Department of Study of Religions.

Tel: 020 7898 4108
Email: gs41@soas.ac.uk
Room: 319

Subir Sinha

Member

South Asia: institutions of development, NGOs, social movements; the environment, common property institutions and resource use

Tel: 020 7898 4495
Email: ss61@soas.ac.uk
Room: 287
Office Hours: Wednesday 11-1
On Sabbatical:Terms 2 and 3 2012/2013

Stefan Sperl

Member

Classical Arabic literature; medieval Arabic popular literature; court poetry and oral literature; refugee studies and refugee-related issues

Tel: 020 7898 4338
Email: ss6@soas.ac.uk
Room: 433
On Sabbatical:Term 1 2012

Annabelle Sreberny

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

Carol G. S. Tan

Member

Contract, legal history, British overseas rule and the law especially in relation to the leased territory of Weihaiwei and to ethnic Chinese communities in Hong Kong and South East Asia, law and society in South East Asia, traditional Chinese law

Tel: 020 7898 4630
Email: ct9@soas.ac.uk
Room: 4415
Office Hours: Tuesday 14.30 - 16.30
On Sabbatical:Term 2 2012-13

Tania Tribe

Painting in Africa and the Americas; theory of art with special reference to Northeastern Africa

Tel: 020 7898 4462
Email: tt10@soas.ac.uk
Room: B406
Office Hours: Thursdays 2-3 pm, or by appointment

Ilana Webster-Kogen

Member

Ethiopian music; Music in Israel/Palestine; Biblical cantillation; migration and nationalism; music and gender.

Tel: 020 7898 4243
Email: iw4@soas.ac.uk
Room: 512
Office Hours: Tuesdays 11am-1pm

Lynn Welchman

Member

Islamic law; law of the Middle East and North Africa, especially comparative family law; human rights; gender and law, Palestine and the law

Tel: 020 7898 4672
Email: lw10@soas.ac.uk
Room: 229
Office Hours: Tuesday 10.15 - 12.15 terms 2 and 3
On Sabbatical:Term 1 2012-13

Abigail Wood

Member

Jewish Music, especially contemporary Yiddish song and klezmer; the sounds of urban Jerusalem; music among minority and immigrant communities in Israel; music and religion; urban and internet-based fieldwork.

Tel: 020 7898 4243
Email: aw48@soas.ac.uk
Room: 512
Office Hours: On leave 2011-2013

Amina Yaqin

Urdu language and literature; post-colonial literature and theory; gender studies; South Asian literatures in English; feminism in a Third World context; gender and politics in Pakistan

Tel: 020 7898 4305
Email: ay@soas.ac.uk
Room: 470
Office Hours: Wednesdays 10:00-12:00

Cosimo Zene

Member

Anthropology of religion, theory in the study of religions, continental philosophy, Gramsci and religion, intercultural and inter-religious dialogue, minorities (Dalits), mysticism and heresy, non-Western Christianities, Mediterranean anthropology; South-Asia (India, Bangladesh), Sardinia.

Tel: 020 7898 4783
Email: zc@soas.ac.uk
Room: 340
Office Hours: Term 1 - Tuesdays 2:30-4pm / Thursdays 15:30-5pm