Department of Politics and International Studies

Professor Arshin Adib-Moghaddam

Key information

Roles
Admissions Tutor: MSC Politics of the Middle East Co-Convenor MSc Politics of the Middle East Centre for AI Futures Inaugural Co-Director Near and Middle East Section Co-Convenor MA in Iranian Studies Centre for Iranian Studies Co-Director Centre for Palestine Studies Member
Qualifications
BA, MA (Hamburg); MPhil, PhD (Cantab)
Building
Russell Square: College Buildings
Office
C214
Email address
aa106@soas.ac.uk
Telephone number
+44 (0)20 7898 4747
Support hours
Thursdays 10:00am - 12:00 noon

Biography

Arshin Adib-Moghaddam is Professor in Global Thought and Comparative Philosophies at SOAS University of London and Fellow of Hughes Hall, University of Cambridge.

Educated at the Universities of Hamburg, American (Washington DC) and Cambridge, where he received his MPhil and PhD as a multiple scholarship student, Prof. Adib-Moghaddam was the first Jarvis Doctorow Fellow in International Relations and Peace Studies at St. Edmund Hall and the Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Oxford. Adib-Moghaddam received his Professorship at SOAS as one of the youngest academics in his field.

At Cambridge University, he was elected Honorary Fellow of the Cambridge European Trust Society which was based at Trinity College under the auspices of His Royal Highness, The Duke of Edinburgh. In 2017, he was nominated to the national panel of the Royal Anniversary Trust which evaluates the Queen's Anniversary Prize, the highest form of recognition to higher education institutions in the UK which is announced in an annual ceremony at St. James’s Palace. In 2018, Hughes Hall in the University of Cambridge elected him as a Fellow.

Adib-Moghaddam is a member of over a dozen editorial boards and he is co-editor in chief, together with Prof. Ali Mirsepassi (New York University), of the Cambridge book series, The Global Middle East. He is the author of several books, including “Is Artificial Intelligence Racist? (Bloomsbury, 2023)” and “What is Iran? (Cambridge University Press, 2021)”. He has published over 60 research articles in scientific journals and books and he has given numerous key-note lectures all over the world. Beyond his academic work, Adib-Moghaddam has been featured as a speaker at public events such as the Biennale in Venice, the Doha Forum in Qatar and the Cambridge Ideas Festival.

As a critic and philosopher, Adib-Moghaddam is world-renowned for his work on world politics, comparative philosophy and the ethics of Artificial Intelligence.

As a public intellectual, he writes about contemporary culture and global politics. He has appeared in several documentaries produced by the BBC, Al -Jazeera and other TV outlets and he has contributed to TV and cinema productions, including the British TV series COBRA.

Prof. Adib-Moghaddam’s opinion pieces and interviews have been published by leading outlets including Times Higher Education, The Conversation, Al-Jazeera, CNN, The Guardian, The Independent and the Tehran Times. In addition to several honorary appointments at institutions all over the world, he is currently co-directing the SOAS Centre for AI Futures.

Research interests

  • Artificial Intelligence (AI) and human security
  • Art, poetry, emotions as languages for global peace
  • Political/social psychology
  • The global politics of power and resistance
  • Global thought and comparative philosophies
  • Iran, East-West relations, West Asia and North Africa.

PhD Supervision

Name Title
Mesrob Kassemdjian Hezbollah and Hamas: A chequered alliance
Nazam Laila Digital Power and Bangladeshi Gig Economy: Economic Emancipation or Neo-colonial Exploitation?

Publications