Centre for Gulf Studies

The Centre for Gulf Studies at the University of Exeter has the largest concentration of Gulf Studies experts in the world. The Centre’s focus encompasses the Arabian Peninsula, Iraq, and Iran. The collective expertise of the Centre encompasses (in alphabetical order): anthropology, development studies, economics, history, international relations, Islamic studies, literature, material culture, Persian, political economy, political science, and sociolinguistics. It runs the world’s only MA in Gulf Studies and its staff supervise a large number of PhD dissertations on the Gulf region.

Gulf studies at Exeter began in 1978 with the foundation of the Centre for Arab Gulf Studies. In 1999, the Centre was merged with the Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies to form the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies. The Institute's impressive building, completed in 2001, was donated by the Ruler of Sharjah, Dr Shaikh Sultan bin Muhammad Al-Qasimi, himself a PhD graduate of Exeter.

The Centre for Gulf Studies has been hosting the world's longest-running conference series on the Gulf region and Arabian Peninsula since 1979. The Gulf Collection at Exeter is one of the largest in the world. Most of the Collection is housed in the Institute building, in the .

The Centre is also home to the Journal of Arabian Studies, the only international journal focusing on the Arabian Peninsula, its surrounding waters, and their connections with the Western Indian Ocean (from West India to East Africa), from Antiquity to the present day.