SOAS University of London

Department of Politics and International Studies

Research Students in the Politics Department

Leda Betti
Leda Betti

Making Cars, Remaking People: the Italian State and the Rescaling of Class Relations in the Fiat-Chrysler Case

Guy Robert Eyre
Guy Eyre

Understanding everyday North Africans' ideas about halal and haram lifestyles: an ethnographic study of grassroots Muslim educational and Quranic reading circles (tajwid) in Algeria and Morocco.

Jack Joy
Jack Joy

The Spectacle of Resistance: Repertoires of Power in the Discourse of Hizbullah [working title]

Merve Kutuk
Staff Silhouette

Locating Muslim Women: Consumption, Activism and Contention in Turkey, SOAS. Awarded 2016.

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Ibrahim Nyei
Ibrahim Nyei

Decentralisation reforms and the implications for power and authority relations in a centralised unitary state. A study of decentralisation reforms in Liberia

Salman Rafi
Salman Rafi Sheikh

Intra-Ethnic Fragmentation and the Politics of De-centralising Constitutional Change in Pakistan: A Comparative Study

Hania Sobhy
Staff Silhouette

Creating Competent and Loyal Citizens: Reproduction, Resistance and Nation-Building in Egyptian Schools. Awarded 2012.

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Daniel Thumpston
Daniel Thumpston

Legitimacy in China’s foreign policy: Reception of the "Belt and Road Initiative" in the European Union, 2013-2020 (working title)

Tanya Walker
Staff Silhouette

Authority and Power in Shari'a Councils in Britain : An Ethnographic Study, Awarded 2012.

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Daniel Songjun Yu
Staff Silhouette

The Status of Ideology in Post-Cold War China-North Korea Relations

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Further information about the Department's PhD programme can be found here.

Recently awarded PhD theses

2019
  • Alia Al-Senussi Power, Aesthetics, Culture: What is Saudi Arabian Cultural Identity and How is it Expressed? (Prof C Tripp)
  • Elisa Brewis Accountability of Quality and Fair Access in Indonesian Higher Education: Policymaker and Practitioner Perspectives 
  • Julie Marie Broome Does Transitional Justice Build the Rule of Law? The Role of Domestic Prosecutors
  • Luisa Calvete Portela Barbosa Assessing Dominance Beyond the Party: The Past in Present South Africa (Prof S Chan)
  • Jason Chen The DPP’s Changing Position Towards Taiwan Sovereignty and Cross-Strait Relations, 2000-2016 (Dr D Fell)
  • Adélie Chevée The Emergence of Syrian Grassroots Intellectuals: Critique and Political Commitment in the Revolutionary Press (2011-2017) (Prof C Tripp)
  • Veronica Ferreri Creating a Syrian Subject, Sensing the Syrian State: Displacement, Violence and Fantasy of the State Amongst Syrian Refugees in Lebanon
  • Michael Innes Streets without Joy: Afghanistan, Iraq and the American Sanctuary Discourses of 2001-2008 (Dr F Adamson)
  • Vino Kanapathipillai State/Corporation/Security: Relations, Practices, Governmentality
  • Victor Pui Fung Law Framing Democracy: The Competing Discourses of the Pro-Establishment and the Pro-Democracy Camps in Hong Kong, 2003-2014 (Dr D Fell)
  • Jonathan Leslie Fear and Insecurity: Competing Narratives of the Iran-Israel Relationship
  • Hyunjung Lim Can Aid to North Korea Bring Peace to the Korean Peninsula? A Study from the Perspective of Peace Economy Theory 
  • Neil Loughlin Authoritarian Regime Durability: An Analysis of Cambodia's Coercion-Dominant Winning Coalition
  • Akok Madut South Sudan’s Engagement with China: The Foreign Policy of a Liberation Movement in Government (Prof S Chan)
  • Mathilde Zederman Trans-State Spaces of Mobilisation: Tunisian Activism in France in the Era of Ben Ali, 1987-2011
2018
  • Seyed Alavi Iran's Relations with Palestine: Roots and Development (Dr A Adib-Moghaddam)
  • Sameen Ali Staffing The State: The Politicisation of Bureaucratic Appointments in Pakistan (Dr M Nelson)
  • Inioluwa Dele-Adedeji The Mobilisation of the Boko Haram Sect (Dr P Clark)
  • Hugh Lamarque Insulating the Borderlands: Policing and State Reach in Rwanda (Dr P Clark)
  • Tahani Mustafa Transforming Security Landscapes: Security Sector Reform in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (Dr A Adib-Moghaddam)
  • Kathryn Nash From State Security to Human Security: The Evolution of Norms at the Regional Level in Africa (Dr L Vinjamuri)
  • Dominique Oliver Transforming Lebanon (Prof C Tripp)
  • Maria Rashid Affect as a Technology of Rule: Service, Sacrifice and the Pakistani Military (Dr L Khalili)
  • Lynne Wanyeki African solutions for African problems' or a 'liberal peace': the African Union (AU) and Kenya (Prof S Chan)
2017
  • Sasan Aghlani-Asl The Nuclear Policies of Iran: Islam and Strategic Thinking in the Islamic Republic (Dr A Adib-Moghaddam)
  • Richard Akum Informal Ordering, Authority and Control: Borderland Dynamics and Postwar Statebuilding in Liberia (Prof S Chan)
  • Athanasius Barkindo History, Memory and Resistance in Northern Nigeria: The Transformation of Boko Haram (Dr P Clark)
  • Emma Birikorang Emerging Regional Security Threats in West Africa: Implications for Regional Security (Dr P Clark)
  • Noga Glucksam Transitional Justice and Collective Identity: Contesting Concepts of Justice in Liberia and Uganda (Dr P Clark)
  • Hae Won Jeong Rethinking State Autonomy in Rentier State Theory (RST): A Case study of Kuwait (Dr A Adib-Moghaddam)
  • Salam Kamel The Constitution as Unfinished Business: The Making and Un-Making of Power Relations in Iraq, 2003-2010 (Prof C Tripp)
  • Lili Liu Environmental Activism and Political Intermediation: Local Flexibility in Managing Protests in China (Dr J Strauss)
  • Charles Marques Rebel Diplomacy as "Rebelcraft": Libya 2011 (Prof S Chan)
  • Goktug Sonmez The Interplay between International and Domestic Factors in Turkey's Grand Strategy-Making: Activism, Disappointment, and Readjustment (Dr F Adamson)