Centre for Gulf Studies
Staff
Staff of the Centre for Gulf Studies specialise in one or more of: the Arabian Peninsula, Iraq and Iran – and their thematic specialisms range across the social sciences and humanities. These geographic and thematic areas overlap and intertwine, in recognition of historical shifts, histories of contact, and the value of interdisciplinary inquiry. By the same token, different staff have different foci, and all have firm disciplinary grounding.
James Onley
Director, Exeter Centre for Gulf Studies.
Dr Onley specialises in 19th and 20th century Gulf Arab history, focusing on: politics; society; culture; transnationalism; British hegemony (1820-1971); expatriates in the Gulf Arab States (1800-present); and the historical connections between the Gulf Arab States, Iran, and India.
Email: J.Onley@exeter.ac.uk
Phone: 01392 724030
Professor Dionisius Agius
Al Qasimi Professor of Arabic Studies and Islamic Material Culture
Professor Agius specialises in the history of seafaring and seafarers in the Indian Ocean and Mediterranean, Arabic language and linguistics, the semantics of material culture, and travel literature in Medieval Islam.
Email: D.A.Agius@exeter.ac.uk
Phone: +44 (0)1392 725257
Dr Hashem Ahmadzadeh
Associate Professor in Kurdish Studies
Dr Ahmadzadeh specialises in Iran and Kurdistan, focusing on: sociolinguistics, nation-building, nationalism, democratisation, migration and diaspora, literature and the question of identity and its construction in the literary discourse, and gender studies.
Email: h.ahmadzadeh@exeter.ac.uk
Phone: +44 (0)1392 724018
Professor Christine Allison
Ibrahim Ahmed Professor of Kurdish Studies
Professor Allison specialises in Yezidi Kurds, Kurdish society and culture, oral history, and folklore.
Email: ca239@exeter.ac.uk
Phone: +44 (0)1392 724026
Mr Michael Axworthy
Lecturer
Mr Axworthy specialises in Iranian history and politics, especially Iran in the 18th century, and modern Iran.
Email: M.G.A.Axworthy@exeter.ac.uk
Phone: +44 (0)1392 724090
Dr John P. Cooper, MARES
Postdoctoral Research Associate, MARES Project
Dr Cooper is a research fellow working on the MARES project. He researches the maritime cultures of the Red Sea and wider Indian Ocean region, particularly boat construction, usage and typology, as well as maritime archaeology. He also specialises in the navigational landscapes of the medieval Nile.
Email: j.p.cooper@ex.ac.uk
Phone: +44 (0)1392 725251
Professor Robert Gleave
Professor of Arabic Studies
Professor Gleave specialises in Shi'ism; classical Islamic thought; and Islamic legal theory (usul al-fiqh), particularly Shi'i usul al-fiqh, and its relation to legal and religious practice throughout Muslim legal history.
Email: r.gleave@exeter.ac.uk
Phone: +44 (0)1392 724025
Dr Leonard Lewisohn
Lecturer, Iran Heritage Foundation Fellow in Persian and Sufi Literaure
Dr Lewisohn specialises in Persian mystical and philosophical thought, Sufism, and Persian language and literature.
Email: l.lewisohn@exeter.ac.uk
Phone: +44 (0)1392 724090
Professor Tim Niblock
Professor of Arab Gulf Studies
Professor Niblock is Al-Qasimi Chair in Arab Gulf Studies (1999-2008). Specialises in the Gulf Arab States, Iraq, Sudan, Egypt, and Libya, focusing on: political economy, state and religion, liberalisation / democratisation, citizenship, civil society, and international relations.
Email: t.c.niblock@exeter.ac.uk
Phone: +44 (0)1392 724028
Professor Gerd Nonneman
Dean of Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service in Qatar, Professor of International Politics & Gulf Studies; Visiting Professor at the CGS.
Until 2010/11 he was until 2011 the Al-Qasimi Chair of Arab Gulf Studies at Exeter. He specialises in the domestic, regional and international politics of the Gulf and the wider Middle East. Thematically, his main research interests include international relations and foreign policy, GCC-EU (and Middle East-European) relations, political economy, and political reform. Geographically he has focused particularly on Saudi Arabia and the smaller Arab Gulf States, Iraq and Yemen.
Email: g.nonneman@exeter.ac.uk
Phone: n/a
Dr Sajjad Rizvi
Associate Professor of Islamic Intellectual History
Dr Sajjad Rizvi works on Islamic intellectual history. His particular interests which grew from his PhD at Cambridge on the philosophy of Mulla Sadra Shirazi (d. c. 1635), ie in post-Avicennan philosophical, theological and mystical traditions. He also has conducted research on Shia communities in the Gulf region, from Iraq to Bahrain.
Email: s.h.rizvi@exeter.ac.uk
Phone: +44 (0)1392 724037
Professor Gareth Stansfield
Professor of Middle East Politics, Director of the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies
Professor Stansfield specialises in contemporary Iraqi and Kurdish politics; Gulf security and geopolitics; boundary disputes in the Arabian Peninsula; political development in traumatised societies; the role of military forces in Middle East states; and the application of international relations theory to the Middle East. He has supervised PhD students across a range of subjects including the political development of the UAE, Gulf security, and Iraqi political development.
Email: g.r.v.stansfield@exeter.ac.uk
Phone: +44 (0)1392 724105
Dr Marc Valeri
Lecturer in Political Economy of the Middle East
Dr Valeri specialises in modern and contemporary Oman; economic, social and political transformations in the Gulf Arab States; legitimacy, authoritarianism and democratisation in the Middle East.
Email: M.Valeri@exeter.ac.uk
Phone: +44 (0)1392 724027
Dr Chiara Zazzaro, MARES
Postdoctoral Research Associate, MARES Project
Dr Chiara Zazzaro specialises on the maritime archaeology of the Red Sea, focusing on: boatbuilding construction techniques, nautical equipment, harbour and ports, navigation techniques, coastal environment, maritime material culture and ethno-archaeology.
Email: c.zazzaro@exeter.ac.uk
Phone: +44 (0)1392 725251
