PhD Students
More information on the department’s PhD programme.
Recently Awarded PhDs
2011
- Gregory Deacon The socio-economic role of Pentecostal Churches in Kibera, Nairobi (Prof Gifford)
- Lewis Doney Transforming Tibetan Kingship: The portrayal of Khri Srong lde brtsan in the early Buddhist Histories (Dr Ulrich Pagel)
- Gwendolyn Heaner Destroying the Destroyer of Your Destiny: the Role(s) of Pentecostalism in Post-War Liberia (Prof Gifford)
- Satomi Horiuchi Expressing Emotions: Practices of Caring for the Dead in Contemporary Japanese Christianity (Dr L Dolce)
- Fumi Ouchi The Somatic Nature of Enlightenment: Vocal Arts in the Japanese Tendai Tradition (Dr L Dolce)
- Benedetta Lomi The Precious Steed of the Buddhist Pantheon: Ritual, Faith and Images of Bato Kannon in Japan (Dr L Dolce)
- Ligeia Lugli The Conception of Language in Early Indian Mahāyāna Buddhism - With Special Reference to the Laṅkāvatārasūtra (Dr U Pagel)
- Masaaki Okada Nature in the Healing and Farming Practices of Okada Mokichi of Sekai Kyusei Kyo (Dr L Dolce)
- Rupinder Kaur Pamme The Pilgrimage To Takht Hazur Sahib and its Place in the Sikh Tradition (Prof Shackle)
- Emily Welty Faith-based NGOs, Peacebuilding and Development: the Mennonite Central Committee's work in East Africa (Prof Gifford)
2010
- William Henry Taylor Narratives of Identity: the Syrian Orthodox Church and the Church of England 1895-1914. (Dr Hunter)
- David Edward Azzopardi Religious Belief and Practice Among Sri Lankan Buddhists in the Uk (Dr K Crosby)
- Kuan Guang Wutai Shan During the Ming Dynasty (Prof Barrett)
- Stefania Travagnin The Madhyamika Dimensions of Yin Shun: A Restatement of the School of Nagarjuna in 20Th Century Chinese Buddhism (Prof Bocking)
- Robert William James Wilfred Cantwell Smith's theory of Scripture Related To the Use of the Bible in African Anglicanism (Prof Gifford)
- Christine Bodewes Civil Society in Africa: the Role of A Catholic Parish in A Kenyan Slum (Prof Gifford)
- Christopher Allen Daily From Gosport To Canton: A New Approach To Robert Morrison and the Beginnings of Protestant Missions in China. (Prof Barrett)
2009
- Karel Peter Leonard Gerard Kersten Occupants of the Third Space: New Muslim intellectuals and the Study of Islam (Hasan Hanafi, Mohammed Arkoun, Murchilish Madjid). (Prof Shackle)
- Uranchimeg Borjigin Ujeed Indigenous Efforts and Dimensions of Mongolian Buddhism - Exemplified By the Mergen Tradition (Dr T Skorupski)
- Hasan Ali Khan Shia-Ismaili Motifs in the Sufi Architecture of the indus Valley 1200 - 1500 (Prof Shackle)
- James Alexander Kapalo Text, Context, Performance: the Lay institutions of Gagauz Orthodoxy (Prof Gifford)
2008
- Catherine Sarah Newell Monks, Meditation and Missing Links: Continuity, "Orthodoxy" and the Vijja Dhammakaya in Thai Buddhism. (Dr K Crosby)
- Katherine Louise Wharton Philosophy As A Practice of Freedom in Ancient india and Ancient Greece (Dr T Proferes)
- Adil Hussain Khan Mirza Ghulam Ahmad and the Construction of the Ahmadiyya Identity. (Prof Shackle)
2007
- Joanna Elizabeth Marie Sadgrove The Condom Culture Is Not the Kingdom Culture': Dissonant Discourses & Secret Sex Amongst Born-Again University Students in Uganda (Prof Gifford)
- Gianpaolo Vetturini The Bka' Gdams Pa School of Tibetan Buddhism (Dr T Skorupski)
- Sian Melvill Hawthorne Origins, Genealogies and the Politics of Mythmaking: Towards A Feminist Philosophy of Myth (Prof Gifford)
- Eamon Francis Adams Towards the Reform of Korean Buddhism During the Japanese Colonial Period, 1910-1935 (Prof Bocking)
2006
- Hugh James Osgood African Neo-Pentecostal Churches and British Evangelicalism 1985-2005; Balancing Principles and Practicalities (Prof Gifford)
- Ho Young Lee Dai Zhen's Philosophy of Ethical Human Being (Prof Barrett)
- Ornella Corazza Consciousness and Place': the Phenomenology of the Near-Death Experience (Nde) and Similar States induced By Dissociative Anaesthesia (Dr C Zene)
- Annette Benaim Judeo-Spanish Testimonies in 16th-Century Responsa (Dr Stern)
- Felix Jere Phiri Local Muslim Associations As A Contemporary Way of Isla,Mization in Zambia (Prof Gifford)
- Jane Elizabeth Clifford Gender, Social Change and Spiritual Power: A Study of Charismatic Christianity in Accra, Ghana (Prof Gifford)
- Sharmina Mawani The Construction of Identities Amongst Young Adult Nizari Ismailis in Toronto and Mumbai (Prof Shackle)
- Oliver Paul Scharbrodt Reconciling Religious Dissidence in Early Baha'Ism and in the Salafiyya: A Comparative Study of 'Abdul-Baha 'Abbas (1844-1921) and Muhammad 'Abduh (1849-1905) (Prof Shackle)
- Abdollah Guivian Religion, Television and Culture in Post-Revolutionary Iran (Dr C Zene)
2005
- Vena Radha Ramphal A Word On Movement: Thinking Approaches To the Dancing Body (Dr C Zene)
- Matthew Muriuki Karangi The Sacred Mugumo Tree: Revisiting the Roots of Gikuyu Cosmology and Worship. A Case Study of the Gicugu Gikuyu of Kirinyaga District in Kenya (Dr C Zene)
- Chengzhong Pu Kindness Towards Animals in Early Chinese Buddhism (Prof Barrett)
- Anastasia Karaflogka Religious Discourse and Cyberspace (Prof Bocking)
- Chi Ho Ivan Hon Chinese intellectuals' Reconstruction of Confucianism in the Late 19th and Early 20th Century China (Prof Bocking)
- Senevi Aturupana Saddha: An Analytical Study of its Role in theravada Buddhism (Dr T Skorupski)
- Jonah Avriel Cohen Religious Appreciation and the Mundane-Sacred: A Neglected Area of Philosophy (Dr C Zene)
- Elena Moreddu Sacred Places in Sardinia - Cumbessias Villages, Sacredness, and the Dialectic of the Work of Art (Dr C Zene)
- Ci Yuan The Bodhisativa Ideal in Selected Buddhist Scriptures (its theoretical and Practical Evolution) (Dr T Skorupski)
- Fang-Long Shih Dead Maidens in Taiwan: Breaking Down Chinese Religious Tradition (Dr C Zene)
- Susan Elizabeth Prill The Sant Tradition and Community formation in the Works of Guru Nanak and Dadu Dayal (Prof Shackle)
Thomas Alberts
Indigenous Modernity: Shamanism, Discourse and the Study of Religions
- Email: Thomas.alberts100@gmail.com
Husam Almallak
Post-Secular Islamic Religiosity: A Nietzschean Reading of Ibn ‘Arabi’s Hermeneutics of Transvaluation
- Email: halmallak@gmail.com
Barakatullo Ashurov
Tarsākyā: an analysis of Sogdian Christianity based on Archaeological, Numismatic, Epigraphic and Textual Sources.
- Email: 235548@soas.ac.uk
Alexandra Buhler
Historical analysis of the role which Zoroastrians played during the institutional revolution in Iran (1905-11).
- Email: 235321@soas.ac.uk
Hannah Bartos
Organizing Transnational Yoga in the UK & India: Institutionalization, Globalization & Complexity.
- Email: 247013@soas.ac.uk
Afework Beyene
Jews and Jerusalem in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church: A Reassessment.
- Email: 244712@soas.ac.uk
Graham Burns
Philosophical study on ways in which Vedic Upanishads present reality.
- Email: 245343@soas.ac.uk
David Cohen
Abrabanel’s Commentary on the Biblical Book of Genesis: Selected Translation and Stylistic Analysis.
- Email: 554259@soas.ac.uk
Aristotle Dy
Marginal Buddhists: Religion, Social Work, and Cultural Identity of the Chinese in the Philippines
- Email: 245254@soas.ac.uk
Ahmet Riza Emiroglu
The Exploration of the Idea of Emanation through the Comparison between the Islamic and Indian Philosophies with Special Reference to Ibn Sīnā and Abhinavagupta.
- Email: 103204@soas.ac.uk
Federico Filippi
The Ontological Positions of the Buddha in the discourses of the Pali Nikayas.
- Email: 170468@soas.ac.uk
Richard Godwin
Late Sassanian Persia, the Culture of the Church of the East and Tang Imperial Patronage.
- Email: 258191@soas.ac.uk
Jennifer Griggs
Language of spiritual love in Sufism and Eastern Christianity.
- Email: 216086@soas.ac.uk
Eleanor Tiplady Higgs
Christianity and transnational feminism in the Kenyan women's movement (working title)
Prabhjap Singh Jutla
Hindutva and the Construction of Sikh Identity: A Political and Intellectual History, c. 1877-2004.
- Email: 108032@soas.ac.uk
James Kimball
The soteriological role of the ṛṣi Kapila in the Yuktidīpikā: the production and transmission of liberating knowledge in classical Sāṃkhya.
- Email: jaskimball@hotmail.com
Man Shik Kong
A Study of Attitude to Food in Canonical and Commentarial Texts of Theravada Buddhism.
- Email: 316586@soas.ac.uk
Pyi Kyaw
A Living Tradition of Paṭṭhāna: A Study of the Roles of The Conditional Relations (Paṭṭhāna) in the context of Contemporary Burmese Buddhism.
- Email: 258214@soas.ac.uk
Jennifer Langer
Exile from Exile: The Representation of Cultural Memory in Literary Texts by Contemporary Exiled Iranian Jewish Women Writers.
- Email: 249243@soas.ac.uk
Samantha Langsdale
Damaged Bodies: Gendering Identity in Religious Discourse.
- Email: 146013@soas.ac.uk
Karen Liljenberg
A Critical Study of the "Thirteen Later Translations" of the Dzogchen Mind Series
- Email: karenliljenberg@yahoo.co.uk
Jennifer Loh
Exploring the construction of 'political identity' among Kinnars in Madhya Pradesh, India.
- Email: 241471@soas.ac.uk
Yaara Morris
The Cult of Tenkawa Benzaiten – her rituals, texts, and mandalas.
- Email: 143701@soas.ac.uk
Bhikkhu Nagasena
The significance of the Sima (Buddhist Monastic Boundary) in Burmese Theravada: Authority and Practice
- Email: 173954@soas.ac.uk
Janine Nicol
Daoxuan and the Shijia fangzhi: The Creation of a Buddhist Sacred Geography of China.
- Email: 105504@soas.ac.uk
Sayam Patthranuprawat
Literary analysis of the narrative methods of stories in the Maharbatha.
- Email: 547617@soas.ac.uk
Zara Ramsay
Religion, Gender and Development: Women’s Empowerment in South India
- Email: zararamsay@gmail.com
Niranjan Saha
Philosophy of Advaita as Presented in the Gitagudharthadipika of Madhusudana Sarsavti
- Email: 214970@soas.ac.uk
Shamaila Sarwar
The life and works of the twentieth century Pakistani Islamic mystic, Sufi Abu Anees Barkat Ali (d. 1997), and the origins and development of the khānaqah of Dār Ul Ehsān
- Email: ss86@soas.ac.uk
Shi Longdu
Buddhism and the State in Medieval China: A Case Study of Three Persecutions of Buddhism in Chinese History, 446-845
- Email: 241201@soas.ac.uk
Kazumi Taguchi
Beyond Tokugawa Confucianism: Soseki and Neo-Edo taste in the Meiji Bun'jin Community
- Email: 136926@soas.ac.uk
