SOAS University of London

Department of the Languages and Cultures of the Near and Middle East

Near & Middle Eastern Studies Section Staff

Head of the School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics

Dr Nana Sato-Rossberg

Head of Section

Professor Wen-chin Ouyang (Arabic), Dr Yorgos Dedes (Other Middle East)

BA Convenors

Dr Yorgos Dedes (BA Middle Eastern Studies, BA Middle Eastern Studies and..., BA Turkish and...)

Ms Narguess Farzad (BA Persian and...)

Dr Mila Neishtadt (BA Hebrew and...)

Professor Wen-chin Ouyang (BA Arabic, BA Arabic and...)

Dr Yair Wallach (BA Hebrew and Israeli Studies)

MA Convenors

Dr Yorgos Dedes (MA ... and Intensive Language (Turkish), MA Near and Middle Eastern Studies, MA Near and Middle Eastern Studies and Intensive Language, MA Turkish Studies)

Ms Narguess Farzad and Ms Shabnam Mirafzali (MA ... and Intensive Language (Persian))

Mr Mohamed Said (MA ... and Intensive Language (Arabic))

Dr Mustafa Shah (MA Islamic Studies

TBC (MA Palestine Studies, MA Palestine Studies and Intensive Language)

TBC (MA Iranian Studies, MA Iranian Studies and Intensive Language, MA Israeli Studies)

Research Tutor; PhD Admissions Tutor; Departmental Director of Doctoral Studies

Professor Wen-chin Ouyang

UG Admissions Tutor

Mr Mohamed Said

Academic Advisers

Arabic: Dr Nada Elzeer

Other Middle East: Ms Narguess Farzad

NB:  PG students, your Academic Adviser is your MA Convenor.

UG Exams Sub-board

Arabic: Dr Marle Hammond (Chair); Ms Mona Hammad (Deputy)

Other Middle East: Ms Narguess Farzad (Chair); TBC (Deputy)

Professors

Professor Muhammad A S Abdel Haleem, OBE
King Fahd Professor of Islamic Studies
Muhammad A S Abdel Haleem
Qur’an, Hadith, Tafsir; Islam in society; classical and modern Arabic literature
  • Tel: +44(0)20 7898 4325
  • Email: ha4@soas.ac.uk
  • Room: 427
  • Academic Support Hours: Tuesdays 13:00-14:00 / Wednesdays 12:00-13:00
Professor Hugh N Kennedy
Professor of Arabic
Hugh N Kennedy

Medieval history of Arabic-speaking lands.

  • Tel: +44(0)20 7898 4251
  • Email: hk1@soas.ac.uk
  • Room: 436
  • Academic Support Hours: Mondays 4-5pm, Tuesdays 1-2pm
Professor Wen-chin Ouyang
Professor of Arabic and Comparative Literature
Wen-chin Ouyang
Classical and modern Arabic literature and culture, with emphasis on narrative and storytelling, comparative narratology and critical theory, and gendered thinking and discourse.
  • Tel: +44(0)20 7898 4348
  • Email: wo@soas.ac.uk
  • Room: 435
  • Academic Support Hours: Tuesday 2-3pm, Thursday 2-3pm

Senior Lecturers

Dr Yorgos Dedes
Senior Lecturer in Turkish
Yorges Dedes
Early Anatolian Turkish; Ottoman language and literature; Ottoman history; Turkish-Greek relations; modern Turkish culture
  • Tel: +44(0)20 7898 4344
  • Email: gd5@soas.ac.uk
  • Room: 424
  • Academic Support Hours: Tuesday 3-5pm
Ms Narguess Farzad
Senior Lecturer in Persian Studies (Education)
Narguess Farzad
Persian language and literature. Organiser of SOAS-Cambridge Undergraduate workshops
  • Tel: +44(0)20 7898 4346
  • Email: nf1@soas.ac.uk
  • Room: 440
  • Academic Support Hours: Thursday 1-2pm, Friday 1-2pm
Dr Marlé Hammond
Senior Lecturer in Arabic Popular Literature and Culture
Marle Hammond

Senior Lecturer in Arabic Popular Literature & Culture.  

  • Tel: 020 7898 4518
  • Email: mh93@soas.ac.uk
  • Room: 438
  • Academic Support Hours: Monday and Wednesday, 12-1pm
Dr Karima Laachir
Research Associate
Karima Laachir

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

  • Tel: +44(0) 20 7898 4336
  • Email: kl19@soas.ac.uk
  • Academic Support Hours: On Research Leave
Dr Christopher Lucas
Chris Lucas

Historical linguistics, Arabic linguistics, Maltese linguistics, Arabic dialectology, language contact, linguistic variation, contact-induced language change, Language Analysis for the Determination of Origin, Dynamic Syntax, Relevance Theory, Arabic language, Afro-Asiatic languages, English

  • Tel: +44(0) 20 7898 4318
  • Email: cl39@soas.ac.uk
  • Room: 447
  • Academic Support Hours: Away on Research Leave 2020/21
Dr Nima Mina
Senior Lecturer in Persian and Iranian Studies
Mina Nima - NME IMG 240, 186, 56
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
  • Academic Support Hours: Wednesday 1-3pm
Mr Mohamed I Said
Senior Lecturer in Arabic (Education)
Mohamed I Said
Arabic language teaching
  • Tel: +44(0)20 7898 4353
  • Email: ms15@soas.ac.uk
  • Room: 425
  • Academic Support Hours: SEE PROFILE BIO FOR HOURS
Dr Mustafa Shah
Senior Lecturer in Islamic Studies
Staff Silhouette
The early Arabic linguistic tradition; classical Islamic theology and jurisprudence
  • Tel: 020 7898 4341
  • Email: ms99@soas.ac.uk
  • Room: 434a
  • Academic Support Hours: Thursday 12-2

Lecturers

Dr Nada Elzeer
Lecturer in Arabic (Education)
ELZEER Nada - NME IMG 485 186 56
Arabic language and translation
  • Tel: 020 7898 4340
  • Email: ne5@soas.ac.uk
  • Room: 433
  • Academic Support Hours: Tuesday 2-4pm

Senior Lectors

Dr Mila Neishtadt
Senior Lector in Hebrew
NEISHTDADT Mila NME IMG 485 186 56

Semitic Languages and Linguistics, Semitic Languages in Contact, Biblical and Rabbinic Hebrew, Modern Hebrew, Aramaic Linguistics, Arabic Linguistics and Dialectology, Palestinian Arabic, Middle Eastern Traditional Agriculture, Palestinian Ethnography

Teaching Fellows

Dr Keya Anjaria
Lecturer in Near and Middle Eastern Studies
Keya Anjaria

The Novel; 20th Century Turkish Literature; Turkish Cinema; World Literature; Comparative Literature;  20th Century Literary Criticism; Modernity and Modernization in late 19th and 20th Century Turkey.

  • Tel: (020 7898) 4587
  • Email: ka13@soas.ac.uk
  • Room: 407
  • Academic Support Hours: Tuesday 11am-1pm
Dr Helen Blatherwick
Senior Teaching Fellow in Arabic
Research Associate
Staff Silhouette

Classical Arabic literature, Popular literature, Comparative literature

  • Tel: 020 7898 4385
  • Email: hb20@soas.ac.uk
  • Academic Support Hours: TERM 1: Wednesday 3-4pm
Dr Nancy Hawker
Senior Teaching Fellow
HAWKER Nancy NME IMG 485 186 56

Sociolinguistics, modern history, political theory, consumerism, human rights, Palestine, Israel

Visiting Professors

Visiting Language Teacher

Professor Bruce Ingham
Professorial Research Associate
Bruce Ingham

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)

Professor Stefan Sperl
Emeritus Professor in Arabic and Middle Eastern Studies
Professorial Research Associate
Sperl Stefan

Arabic Literature Classical and Modern; Comparative Literature; Qur’an and Hadith Studies; Islamic Art; Sufism and Neoplatonism; Refugee and Exile Studies

  • Tel: +44(0) 20 7898 4338
  • Email: ss6@soas.ac.uk
  • Room: 433
  • Academic Support Hours: On Sabbatical until September 2018

Research Associates

Dr Helen Blatherwick
Senior Teaching Fellow in Arabic
Research Associate
Staff Silhouette

Classical Arabic literature, Popular literature, Comparative literature

  • Tel: 020 7898 4385
  • Email: hb20@soas.ac.uk
  • Academic Support Hours: TERM 1: Wednesday 3-4pm

Research Fellows

Itzea Goikolea-Amiano
Goikolea-Amiano Itzea - CCLPS IMG - 485 186 56

Gender Studies and Feminist Epistemology, Islam and Islamophobia, Spanish Colonialism in Morocco, and the History (Herstory), Culture, Literature and Politics of Colonial Morocco.

Dr Moriel Ram
Ram Moriel - CJS IMG 485 186 56

Israeli-Palestinian conflict, geopolitics and material culture

  • Email: mr45@soas.ac.uk
  • Room: 221
  • Academic Support Hours: Tuesdays 10am - 11am