SOAS, University of London (The School of Oriental and African Studies)

Overview

The SOAS Study of Religions Department offers a vibrant, stimulating, and interdisciplinary research environment. We provide individual research supervision in a wide variety of religious traditions and comparative and interdisciplinary topics. Supervisors are experts in their fields and thoroughly familiar with the religions, cultures, languages, and geographical areas they specialise in. 

In addition to individual supervision the Department offers research training at various levels: an obligatory research writing workshop which prepares year 1 MPhil students for their upgrade to the PhD level; a weekly seminar for PhD students in years 2 and 3 to discuss work in progress and receive feedback before submitting their thesis; a departmental research seminar in which both staff and students present papers on their research projects and discuss them in an interdisciplinary setting. Students also have the opportunity to attend seminars, lectures, and conferences offered by the various specialist Centres relating to their particular fields. These centres run regular evening lecture series, workshops, and conferences which host visiting speakers from other universities in Britain, Europe, and the wider world.

Current and Recent Research Topics

You can see what current research students are working on and titles of previous theses supervised in our department by clicking here.

Academic Staff and their Research Areas

Dr. Joel Cabrita

My research is on the history of Christianity in Southern Africa, particularly the early twentieth century to the present day. I would welcome applications from students on this topic; I would also be happy to supervise more generally on any period, and not necessarily restricted to Christianity or to Southern Africa. My interests include the role of texts in African religions (including debates surrounding issues of orality, literacy, performance and the history of the book in cultures throughout the African continent), as well as religion and politics in Africa. At present, I am particularly interested in the role that Christianity played in liberation politics, and in the anti-colonial and post-colonial movements of the twentieth century.

Dr Kate Crosby BA DPHIL (OXON)
Buddhism of South and South East Asia; Buddhist Sanskrit and Pali literature, with particular reference to post-and non-canonical literature, Pali philology

Dr Lucia Dolce LAUREA MA (VENICE) PHD (LEIDEN)
Japanese religious history, especially the medieval period; Japanese Tantric Buddhism; Buddhism and the esotericisation of religious practice; Millenarian writings and prophecy; Kami-Buddhas association

Dr Peter Flügel
Religion and society in South Asia, Jainism, Jains, minority religions, religion and law, South Asian diaspora

Dr Jan-Peter Hartung MA (LEIPZIG) PHD (ERFURT)
Islamic philosophical and theological thought in Early Modernity, Political Islam, Islam in South Asia (from Early Modernity)

Dr Sian Hawthorne BA (LONDON) PHD (LONDON)
Gender and religion; myth and mythology; postcolonial theory; feminist philosophy

Professor Catherine Hezser DR. THEOL (HEIDELBERG) PHD (JTS, NEW YORK) HABILITATION (FREE UNIV. BERLIN)
Research Tutor
Judaism in Hellenistic and Roman times; Rabbinic literature; Social history of Jews in late antiquity; American Jewish history and literature

Dr Almut Hintze BA (HEIDELBERG) MPHIL (OXON) DPHIL (ERLANGEN) DHABIL (BERLIN)
Zoroastrianism

Dr Erica Hunter PHD (MELBOURNE)
Eastern Christianity, i.e. the Chalcedonian and non-Chalcedonian churches of the Middle East, with particular reference to Iraq

Dr Ulrich Pagel BA PHD (LONDON)
Tibetan language and literature; Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, Buddhism in Central Asia, Mahāyāna Literature, Vinaya

Dr Antonello Palumbo LAUREA PHD (NAPLES)
Ideological history of pre-modern China; Taoism, Buddhism and religious identities in early and medieval China; Manichaeism; Chinese cultural relations with Central Asia

Dr Theodore Proferes BA (NEW YORK) MA PHD (HARVARD)
Research Admissions Tutor
Vedic language and religion; Indian philosophy

Dr Cosimo Zene BA MA PHD (LONDON)
Head of Department
Themes and figures in the study of religion; continental philosophy; missiology; Asian Christianity;