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Department Structure

Head of Department

Dr Almut Hintze

Deputy Head of Department 

Dr Ulrich Pagel

Undergraduate Tutor 

Dr Antonello Palumbo

BA Admissions Tutor

Professor Catherine Hezser

MA Religions Programme Convenor & Directors of Studies 

Dr Theodore Proferes

Research Tutor 

Dr Cosimo Zene

Research Admissions Tutor

Term 1 & 2: Dr Tadeusz Skorupski

Term 3: Dr Lucia Dolce

Teaching Assistant Co-ordinator

Dr Sarah Stewart

Undergraduate Exam Chair

Dr Peter Flugel

Postgraduate Exam Chair

Dr Tadeusz Skorupski

Undergraduate Exam Deputy Chair

Dr Sian Hawthorne

Postgraduate Exam Deputy Chair

Dr Ulrich Pagel

IT Rep

Dr Ulrich Pagel

ISP Co-ordinator

Dr Jan-Peter Hartung

Departmental Research Centre Chairs:

Centre for Buddhist Studies: Dr Tadeusz Skorupski
Centre for Gender and Religions Research: Dr Sian Hawthorne
Centre for Eastern and Orthodox Christianity: Dr Erica Hunter
Centre for Jaina Studies: Dr Peter Flügel
Centre for the Study of Japanese Religions: Dr Lucia Dolce

T H Barrett
Professor of East Asian History
T H Barrett

History of Chinese religion, notably Taoism and Buddhism; pre-modern Chinese history, especially the Tang period

  • Tel: 020 7898 4765
  • Email: tb2@soas.ac.uk
  • Room: 330A
  • On Sabbatical:2009/10
Kate Crosby
Senior Lecturer in Buddhist Studies
Staff Silhouette

Buddhism of South and South East Asia; Buddhist Sanskrit and Pali literature, with particular reference to post- and non-canonical literature; Pali philology

  • Tel: 020 7898 4771
  • Email: kc21@soas.ac.uk
  • Room: 329
  • On Sabbatical:2009/10 (Term 2)

Lucia Dolce
Senior Lecturer in Japanese Religion and Japanese
Staff Silhouette

Japanese religious history, especially the medieval period; Japanese Tantric Buddhism and the esotericisation of religious practice; Millenarian writings and prophecy; Kami-Buddhas associations

  • Tel: 020 7898 4217
  • Email: ld16@soas.ac.uk
  • Room: 334
  • On Sabbatical:2009/10 (Term 1 & 2)
Peter Flügel
Lecturer in the Study of Religions
Staff Silhouette

Jaina Studies; South Asian History & Culture; Anthropology & Sociology of Religion


Jan-Peter Hartung
Lecturer in the Study of Islam
Staff Silhouette

 

Sian Hawthorne
Lecturer in Critical Theory and the Study of Religions
Staff Silhouette
  • Tel: 020 7898 4215
  • Email: sh79@soas.ac.uk
  • Room: 339
  • On Sabbatical:2009/10 Term 2

Catherine Hezser
Professor of Jewish Studies
Catherine Hezser
Almut Hintze
Zartoshty Reader in Zoroastrianism and Head of Department
Almut Hintze

Dr Hintze is the Zartoshty Brothers Reader in Zoroastrianism and currently Head of the Department of Study of Religions. She studied Indo-European philology at the Universities of Heidelberg and Oxford and earned her PhD in Indo-Iranian Studies at the University of Erlangen. After her habilitation in Berlin with a study of the semantics of “reward” in Ancient Iranian (Avestan) and Vedic Sanskrit texts, she spent a term at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton. Subsequently she became Research Fellow at Clare Hall, Cambridge and was appointed to the Zartoshty Brothers post at SOAS in 2001.

  • Tel: 020 7898 4598
  • Email: ah69@soas.ac.uk
  • Room: 341
  • Office Hours: Wednesday, 12–1

Erica Hunter
Lecturer in Eastern Christianity
Erica Hunter

Eastern Christianity: The Chalcedonian and non-Chalcedonian churches of the Middle East, with particular reference to Iraq

  • Tel: 020 7898 4663
  • Email: eh9@soas.ac.uk
  • Room: 451B
  • On Sabbatical:2008/9–2010/11
Ulrich Pagel
Reader, Languages and Religions of Tibet and Central Asia. Convener, Circle of Tibetan and Himalayan Studies
Ulrich Pagel

History of Buddhism in Tibet, Mahāyāna Buddhism, Kanjur Studies, Vinaya, Religions of Central Asia, Tibetan, Sanskrit. 

  • Tel: 020 7898 4782
  • Email: up1@soas.ac.uk
  • Room: Room 332
  • Office Hours: Wed, 13.00h to 15.00h

Antonello Palumbo
Lecturer in Chinese Religions
Staff Silhouette

Ideological history of pre-modern China; Chinese religions, notably Taoism and Buddhism; history of the Buddhist canon in China; Manichaeism and Iranian influences in medieval China; Chinese cultural relations with Central Asia

  • Tel: 020 7898 4768
  • Email: ap47@soas.ac.uk
  • Room: 337
  • Office Hours: Monday, 10-12
Theodore Proferes
Senior Lecturer in Ancient Indian Religions
Staff Silhouette

Tadeusz Skorupski
Reader in Buddhist Studies
Staff Silhouette

Buddhist Studies; philosophical and religious doctrines; literature; iconography Buddhist iconography; Buddhist rituals; Buddhist doctrines; Buddhist history

Sarah Stewart
Lecturer in Zoroastrianism
Staff Silhouette

Cosimo Zene
Senior Lecturer in Theory and Methods in the Study of Religions
Staff Silhouette

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.

Teaching Fellows

François de Blois
Senior Teaching Fellow
François de Blois
Mark Dickens
Senior Teaching Fellow
Research Assistant, ‘The Christian Library from Turfan’ Project
Mark Dickens

History of Central Asia, History of Syriac Christianity

  • Tel: 020 7898 4663
  • Email: md45@soas.ac.uk
  • Room: 451B
  • Office Hours: Mondays, 1:00-3:00 p.m.

Mark Faulkner
Senior Teaching Fellow
Mark Faulkner

Religions of Africa

Jane Soothill
Research Associate
Senior Teaching Fellow
Staff Silhouette

Philip Wood
Senior Teaching Fellow
Staff Silhouette
  • Room: 451B

Post-Doctoral Fellows

Ornella Corazza
Post-doctoral Research Fellow
Ornella Corazza
Christopher Daily
Post Doctoral Research Fellow in Chinese Religions
Staff Silhouette

Yangdon Dhondup
AHRC Research Associate
Staff Silhouette

 

Visiting Professors

Nicholas Sims-Williams
Professorial Researcher
Staff Silhouette

Research Associates

John Hinnells
Professorial Research Associate
Staff Silhouette

Ursula King
Professorial Research Associate
Staff Silhouette


Ian Linden
Professorial Research Associate
Staff Silhouette

Lamin Sanneh
Professorial Research Associate
Staff Silhouette


D Seyfort Ruegg
Professorial Research Associate
Staff Silhouette

Karel Werner
Professorial Research Associate
Staff Silhouette

Brian Black
Research Associate
Brian Black
Simon Brodbeck
Research Associate
Staff Silhouette

 


Ven Khammai Dhammasami
Research Associate
Staff Silhouette
Pradnya Kulkarni
Research Associate
Staff Silhouette

Samuel Lieu
Research Associate
Staff Silhouette
Joachim Persoon
Research Associate
Staff Silhouette


Rosemary Seton
Research Associate
Staff Silhouette
David Smith
Research Associate
Staff Silhouette

Youxuan Wang
Research Associate
Staff Silhouette
Simon Weightman
Research Associate
Staff Silhouette

Modern Bengali literature; Bengali culture


Jan Christoph Westerhoff,
Research Associate
Staff Silhouette

Emeritus Staff

Paul Gifford
Professorial Research Associate
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