Staff of the Department of Near & Middle Eastern Studies
Head of Department
Undergraduate Admissions Tutors
Mr Mohamed I Said (Arabic)
Prof George Hewitt (Non-Arabic)
Undergraduate Programme Convenors
Dr Mark Weeden (BA Ancient Near Eastern Studies)
Dr Mustafa Shah (BA Arabic, BA Arabic plus another subject )
Professor Muhammad Abdel Haleem, Dr Mustafa Shah (BA Arabic & Islamic Studies, BA Islamic Studies)
Dr Tamar Drukker (BA Hebrew & Israeli Studies, BA Hebrew plus another subject)
Dr Yair Wallach (BA Hebrew & Israeli Studies, BA Hebrew plus another subject)
Dr Nima Mina (BA Middle Eastern Studies, BA Persian- Term 1)
Professor George Hewitt (BA Middle Eastern Studies- Term 2)
Ms Narguess Farzad (BA Persian, BA Persian plus another subject)
Dr George Dedes (BA Turkish, BA Turkish plus another subject)
Professor George Hewitt (BA another subject plus Georgian)
Postgraduate Programme Convenors
Dr Mark Weeden (MA Ancient Near Eastern Studies)
Dr Wen-Chin Ouyang (MA Arabic Literature)
Professor George Hewitt (MA Islamic Societies and Cultures)
Professor Muhammad Abdel Haleem (MA Islamic Studies)
Dr Yair Wallach (MA Israeli Studies)
Professor George Hewitt (MA Near and Middle Eastern Studies)
Dr George Dedes (MA Turkish Studies)
Certificate Convenors
Professor George Hewitt (Armenian Studies)
Mr Mohamed I Said (Arabic and Arabic Studies)
Postgraduate Research Tutor
Please note that for Masters Students the Admissions Tutor and Personal Tutor is the Postgraduate Programme Convenor
Professors
Muhammad A S Abdel Haleem, OBE
King Fahd Professor of Islamic Studies
Qur’an, Hadith, Tafsir; Islam in society; classical and modern Arabic literature - Tel: 020 7898 4325
- Email: ha4@soas.ac.uk
- Room: 427
- Office Hours: Tuesdays 12:00-13:00/Wednesdays 12:00-13:00
Andrew R George
Professor of Babylonian
Cuneiform and Ancient Mesopotamian studies - Tel: 020 7898 4335
- Email: ag5@soas.ac.uk
- Room: 414
- Office Hours: E-mail for appointment
- On Sabbatical:2012-13
B George Hewitt
Professor of Caucasian Languages
Caucasian languages (especially South and North-West Caucasian) and linguistics; language work - Tel: 020 7898 4332
- Email: gh2@soas.ac.uk
- Room: 430
- Office Hours: Wednesdays 11:00 -12:00 /Thursdays 11:00-12:00
Hugh N Kennedy
Professor of Arabic
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
Colin Shindler
Pears Senior Research Fellow in Israel Studies
History and politics of Israel; Zionism - Tel: 020 7898 4358
- Email: cs52@soas.ac.uk
- Room: 418
Readers
Wen-Chin Ouyang
Reader in Arabic Literature
Classical and modern Arabic literature and culture, with emphasis on narrative and storytelling, comparative narratology and critical theory, and gendered thinking and discourse. - Tel: 020 7898 4348
- Email: wo@soas.ac.uk
- Room: 435
- Office Hours: Mondays 11:00-12:00/Wednesdays 12:00-13:00
Senior Lecturers
George Dedes
Senior Lecturer in Turkish
Early Anatolian Turkish; Ottoman language and literature; Ottoman history; Turkish-Greek relations; modern Turkish culture - Tel: 020 7898 4344
- Email: gd5@soas.ac.uk
- Room: 424
- Office Hours: Fridays 15:00-17:00
Ayman El-Desouky
Senior Lecturer in Arabic and Comparative Literature
Comparative Literature, 19th and 20th Century Arabic Literature, hermeneutics, modern philosophy and theory.
- Tel: 020 7898 4355
- Email: ad48@soas.ac.uk
- Room: 423
- On Sabbatical:Term 1 2012
Nima Mina
Senior Lecturer in Persian and Iranian Studies
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
Mustafa Shah
Senior Lecturer in Islamic Studies
The early Arabic linguistic tradition; classical Islamic theology and jurisprudence - Tel: 020 7898 4341
- Email: ms99@soas.ac.uk
- Room: 434a
- Office Hours: Wednesdays 14:30-15:30/Thursdays 15:00-16:00
Ayman Shihadeh
Senior Lecturer in Islamic Studies
Medieval Arabic Intellectual History; medieval Arabic philosophy; medieval Islamic theology, especially kalam; ethical theory; the Islamic manuscript tradition.
- Tel: 020 7898 4343
- Email: a.shihadeh@soas.ac.uk
- Room: 426
- On Sabbatical:Term 1 2012
Stefan Sperl
Senior Lecturer in Arabic
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
Katherine P Zebiri
Senior Lecturer in Arabic
Arabic language and literature, modern Islamic studies - Tel: 020 7898 4342
- Email: kz@soas.ac.uk
- Room: 441
- On Sabbatical:Term 1 2012
Lecturers
Marlé Hammond
Lecturer in Arabic Popular Literature and Culture
Lecturer in Arabic Popular Literature & Culture.
- Tel: 020 7898 4518
- Email: mh93@soas.ac.uk
- Room: 438
- Office Hours: Tuesdays 13:00-14:00/Thursdays 12:00-13:00
Karima Laachir
Lecturer in Literary and Cultural Studies
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
Christopher Lucas
Lecturer in Arabic Linguistics
Historical linguistics, Arabic linguistics, the syntax-semantics interface, pragmatics, philosophy of language, Dynamic Syntax, Relevance Theory, Arabic language, Afro-Asiatic languages
- Tel: +44 (0)20 7898 4318
- Email: cl39@soas.ac.uk
- Room: 447
- Office Hours: Tuesdays 11:00-12:00/Wednesdays 11:30-12:30
Christopher Metcalf
Lecturer in Ancient Near Eastern Studies
- Email: cm52@soas.ac.uk
- Room: 4407
- Office Hours: Tuesdays 13:00-15:00 / Or by appointment (rm 414)
Yair Wallach
Pears Lecturer in Israeli Studies
- Tel: 020 7898 4337
- Email: yw11@soas.ac.uk
- Room: 415
- Office Hours: Tuesdays 16:00-17:00 / Wednesdays 14:00-15:00
Mark Weeden
Lecturer in Ancient Near Eastern Studies
Hittite, Akkadion language and literature in Syria
- Tel: 020 7898 4328
- Email: mw41@soas.ac.uk
- Room: 421
- Office Hours: Thursdays 11:00 - 12:00
Senior Fellows
Narguess Farzad
Senior Fellow in Persian
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
Principal Lectors
Mohamed I Said
Senior Lector in Arabic
Arabic language teaching - Tel: 020 7898 4353
- Email: ms15@soas.ac.uk
- Room: 425
- Office Hours: Wednesdays 12:30-13:30 / Thursdays 14:00-16:00
Senior Lectors
Ahmad Alkhashem
Senior Lector in Arabic
- Tel: 020 7898 4208
- Email: aa40@soas.ac.uk
- Room: 434
- Office Hours: Mondays 14:00-15:00 / Tuesdays 14:00-15:00
Maha Collinson
Senior Lector in Arabic
- Tel: 020 7898 4208
- Email: mc86@soas.ac.uk
- Room: 432
- Office Hours: Tuesdays 13:30-14:30 / Thursdays 13:30- 14:30
Tamar Drukker
Lector in Hebrew
Modern Hebrew; medieval literature - Tel: 020 7898 4347
- Email: td4@soas.ac.uk
- Room: 446
- Office Hours: Tuesdays 13:00-14:00 and by appointment
Nada Elzeer
Senior Lector in Arabic
Arabic language and translation - Tel: 020 7898 4340
- Email: ne5@soas.ac.uk
- Room: 432
- Office Hours: On leave 2012/13
Mona Hammad
Senior Lector in Arabic
- Email: mh102@soas.ac.uk
- Room: 434
- Office Hours: Mondays 14:00-15:00 / Tuesdays 11:00-12:00
Principal Teaching Fellow
Muaadh Salih
Principal Teaching Fellow and Arabic Project Co-ordinator
- Tel: 020 7898 4354
- Email: ms1@soas.ac.uk
- Room: 429
- Office Hours: Fridays 12:00-13:00 and 15:00-16:00
Teaching Fellows
Ayse Berna Akca
Teaching Fellow in Turkish and Yunus Emre Language Fellow 2012-13
- Email: aa110@soas.ac.uk
Atef Alshaer
Senior Teaching Fellow
Linguistics, Arabic Literature and history and Politics of the Arab World.
- Tel: 020 7898 4675
- Email: aa134@soas.ac.uk
- Room: 4416
Helen Blatherwick
Teaching Fellow in Arabic
Research Associate
Classical Arabic literature, Popular literature, Comparative literature
- Tel: 020 7898 4385
- Email: hb20@soas.ac.uk
Senior Visiting Professors
Abdul Hakim Ibrahim Al-Matroudi
Visting Professor in Arabic (Islamic Law)
Islamic Law
- Tel: 020 7898 4303
- Email: aa88@soas.ac.uk
- Room: 416
Visiting Readers
Professorial Research Associates
Bruce Ingham
Professorial Research Associate
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
Nicholas Sims-Williams
Iranian and Central Asian philology; Christian and Manichaean texts from Central Asia. - Email: ns5@soas.ac.uk
Research Associates
Shirin Akiner
Research Associate
Politics in Central Asia; gender issues in Central Asia; Islam in Central Asia; Islam, ethnicity, nation building, political change and security in Central Asia. - Email: sa7@soas.ac.uk
Daniel Schwemer
Research Associate
Ancient Near Eastern studies, especially cuneiform - Email: ds11@soas.ac.uk
Yuri Stoyanov
Research Associate
Cosmologies, soteriologies and eschatologies of Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam; dualist, heretical, heterodox and apocalyptic currents in the Abrahamic faiths; Christian theologies of warfare; religious sectarian groups and minorities in the Balkans, Levant, Middle East and Central Asia; status of religious and archaeological sites and associated cultural heritage issues.
Senior Research Fellows
Myriam Wissa
Leverhulme Senior Research Fellow
Social and Economic History of Late Antique, Umayyad and 'Abbasid Egypt; Coptic Epigraphy and Codicology; Arabic Epigraphy; Coptic-Arabic Historiography; Papyrology; Interface between Text and Archaeology; Prosopography; Monasticism (Coptic;Syriac and Garshuni literature); early Sufism (Dhu'l
Nun al-Misri); Religious and artistic interaction in early Islamic Egypt; the Decapolis, Syria, Iraq, Al-Andalus and Malta; Genizah archives: Jewish-Coptic and Jewish-Muslim interaction
- Tel: +44 (0)20 7898 4271
- Email: mw56@soas.ac.uk
