SOAS University of London

Department of Religions & Philosophies, School of History, Religions & Philosophies

PhD Students

Aruna Gamage
Aruba Goigoda Gamage

Buddhaghosa’s Critique of Divergent Buddhist Views: A Doctrinal Study Mainly Based on Pāli Commentarial Exegesis

Monika Hirmer
Monika Hirmer

Becoming the Goddess: Study of a Contemporary South Indian Tantric Tradition and its Implications for Concepts of Personhood, Gender Relations and Everyday Life

Romina Istratii
Romina Istratii

Gender and Development through Local Epistemologies: Understanding Conjugal Violence among Orthodox Täwahәdo Christians in Northern Ethiopia and Implications for Changing Attitudes and Norms within Local Worldviews

Keith Jarrett
Staff Silhouette

[working title] Led By the Spirit: Navigating the fragments of ‘Oneness’ Pentecostalism in London’s migrant Caribbean congregations

Sarah Knight
Sarah Knight

“Oath of the Leaning Cross” and the Rejection of Rome’s Authority: a Re-evaluation of the History of the Syrian Christians of Kerala in the year 1653

Elizabeth Munro
Elizabeth Munro

Seeking Saracens: Exploring the representation of Muslims and Islamic religious practice in the English Charlemagne Romance Cycle and the Petronius Redivivus.

Karen O'Brien-Kop
Karen O'Brien-Kop

Metaphors of Liberation in Classical Yoga: An Intertextual Study of the Pātañjalayogaśāstra, Abhidharmakośabhāṣya, and Yogācārabhūmiśāstra (Working Title)

Adam Pearcey
Staff Silhouette

The Great Perfection (Rdzogs chen) according to Rdo grub chen ‘Jigs med bstan pa’i nyi ma (1865-1926), his Collaborators & Disciples

  • Email:
Meng Wang
Staff Silhouette

The Life of the Sixteenth Karmapa and His Role in the Tibetan Buddhist Transmission to North America and Unitied Kingdom

More information on the department’s PhD programme.

Recently Awarded PhDs

2017
  • George W. Warner Imagining Hujja: Proof and Representation in the works of Al-Shaykh Al-Saduq (Dr P Hartung)
  • Serena Biondo Transmission in the Mind Series: Origins and History of the Mind Series Manuals on Meditation (Dr U Pagel)
  • Alexandra E. L. Buhler The Significance of the Iranian Constitutional Revolution (1906-1911) for Zoroastrians in India and Iran (Dr S Stewart)
  • Janine M. Nicol Daoxuan (c.596-667) and the Creation of a Buddhist Sacred Geography of China: An examination of the Shijia fangzhi (Dr A Palumbo)
  • Samani P. Pragya Preksa Meditation History and Methods (Dr P Flugel)
  • Nazneen R. Engineer Issues of Conversion and Intermarriage in Zoroastrianism: A Nineteenth Century Gujarati Text Perspective in Mumbai, India (Dr S Stewart)
2016
  • Richard Godwin Persian Christians at the Chinese Court: The Xi'an Stele and the Church of the East, 410-845 (Dr E Hunter)
  • Hussam Al-Mallak Thus Spake Ibn al-'Arabi: The Death of God and the Overcoming of Nihilism, an Islamic Perspective (Dr C Zene)
  • Farah Mihlar The Pursuit of Piety and the Quest for Separatism: The Politicisation of Islam in Sri Lanka (Dr P Hartung)
  • Longdu Shi Buddhism and the State in Medieval China: Case Studies of Three Persecutions of Buddhism, 444-846 (Dr A Palumbo)
2015
  • Adam Benkato The Manichaean-Sogdian Parable Book. A new edition and literary analysis (Prof A Hintze)
  • David Cohen The Biblical Exegesis of Don Isaac Abrabanel (Prof C Hezser)
  • Jennifer Griggs Epistemological dialogue with aspects of the Western discipline of the study of mysticism as it relates to Barhebraeus in conversation with al-Ghazali on the question of the `Concept of God' (Dr E Hunter)
  • Hee Won Kim United Progressive Alliance (2004-14), equality of opportunity and Muslims: a paradigm shift or political pragmatism? (Prof G Singh)
  • Steven J. O'Donnell Owning the Future: Demonologies, Apocalyptics, and the Architecture of Sovereignty in a Time of Terror (Dr S Hawthorne)
 2014
  • Barakatullo Ashurov Tarsakya: an analysis of Sogdian Christianity based on Archaeological, Numismatic, Epigraphic and Textual Sources (Dr E. Hunter)
  • Afework Hailu Beyene The Shaping of Judaic Identity of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tawahado Church: historical and literary evidence (Dr E. Hunter)
  • Samantha Anne Langsdale Damaged Bodies: Women's Agency in Trecento Florentine Soteriological Discourses (Dr S Hawthorne)
  • Shinya Mano Yosai and the Transformation of Buddhist Precepts in Pre-modern Japan (Dr L Dolce)
  • Rastin Mehri The Zoroastrian Community in British Columbia (Prof. A. Hintze)
  • Niranjan Saha Philosophy of Advaita Vedanta according to Madhusudana Sarasvati's Gudharthadipika (Dr T. Proferes)
  • Jennifer Ai-Ming Ung Loh  Why vote for a fake kinnar when you can vote for a real one?' Representation and Political Identity among Kinnars in Madhya Pradesh, India (Dr S. Hawthorne)
  • Arash Zeini The Pahlavi version of the Yasna Haptanhaiti (Prof. A. Hintze)
 2013
  • Aristotle Cha Dy Marginal Buddhists: Religion and Identity of a Chinese Minority in the Philippines (Dr A. Palumbo)
  • Ahmet Riza Emitoglu The Exploration of the Idea of Cosmological Process through the Comparison between Ibn Sina and Abhinavagupta (Dr J-P Hartung)
  • Jennifer Langer Exile from Exile: The Representation of Cultural Memory in Literary Texts by Exiled Iranian Jewish Women (Dr S. Hawthorne)
  • 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.
2012
  • Akil Nisar Awan Conversion to Islam in Contemporary Britain: Motivations, Processes and Consequences ( Prof. B Bocking; Prof. C Hezser)
  • Leon Goldman Rasn Yast. The Avestan hymn to ' Justice'. Text, Translation and Commentary (Prof. A Hintze)
  • James Kimball The Soteriological Role of the Rsi Kapila in the Yuktidipika: the Production and Transmission of Liberating Knowledge in Classical Samkhya ( Prof. T Proferes)
  • Kigen-San Licha The Imperfectible Body: Esoteric Transmissions in Medieval Soto Zen Buddhism (Dr L Dolce)
  • Anna Munster The Changing Face of Islam in Post-Soviet Ukraine: A Study of Arraid in the Light of  Social Movement Theory (Dr K Zebiri)
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)
  • Valerie Rylance Lesbian Buddhism? (Prof Bocking)
  • 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)