Institute Staff

Staff office hours and research leave

You can use our expertise search to find academics with research that matches your interests and search for research opportunities.

Search expertise

Institute Director
Professor Christine Robins (formerly Allison)	Director of the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, Ibrahim Ahmed Professor of Kurdish Studies.

Academic Staff
Emeritus Professor Dionisius A. Agius FBA	Al Qasimi Professor of Arabic Studies and Islamic Material Culture
Dr Omar Ashour	Senior Lecturer
Dr Mustafa Baig	Lecturer in Islamic Studies Islamic Law, Muslims living in non-Muslim contexts
Dr Claire Beaugrand	Lecturer in Sociology of the Gulf and the Arabian Peninsula
Dr Billie Jeanne Brownlee	Lecturer in Middle East Politics social media revolution Arab Spring Internet digital technologies social movement revolts uprising displacement migration refugees refugee crisis Syria Lebanon civil society resistance dissent development aid micro-politics authoritarianism
Dr John P. Cooper	Senior Lecturer in Arabic Studies and Islamic Material Culture Islam Arab Maritime Ethnography Maritime Archaeology Islamic Archaeology History Boatbuilding Navigation Nile Red Sea Indian Ocean Persian Gulf Egypt Arabia
Emeritus Professor Rasheed El-Enany	Professor Emeritus
Dr Giorgia Ferrari	Lecturer
Associate Professor William Gallois	Associate Professor of Middle Eastern and Mediterranean History, Director of Research
Dr Eleanor Gao	Senior Lecturer in Middle Eastern Politics
Associate Professor Jonathan Githens-Mazer	Associate Professor in Ethno-Politics
Professor Robert Gleave	Professor of Arabic Studies
Emeritus Professor Richard Hitchcock	Professor Emeritus
Professor Timothy Insoll	Al-Qasimi Professor of African and Islamic Archaeology
Dr István Kristó-Nagy	Senior Lecturer in Arabic and Islamic Studies Abbasid culture; Early and classical Islamic civilisation; social and intellectual history; art history; literature; political thought, Zandaqa (Manicheism and other forms of dualist thought); the kuttāb (administrative elite); comparative and interdisciplinary studies.
Mr Ali Mossadegh	Lecturer in Persian Language
Dr Katie Natanel	Lecturer in Gender Studies
Emeritus Professor Ian Netton	Professor Emeritus
Emeritus Professor Tim Niblock	Professor Emeritus
Ms Abla Oudeh Mahmoud	Lecturer
Dr Burcu Ozturk	Lecturer in Turkish Language
Professor Ilan Pappé	Professor of History, Director of the European Centre for Palestine Studies.
Dr Christina Phillips	Senior Lecturer in Arabic Literature and Media
Dr Ross Porter	Lecturer
Ms Fatima Rawan	Lecturer in Arabic Language
Associate Professor Sajjad Rizvi	Associate Professor of Islamic Intellectual History and Islamic Studies Islamic Philosophy, Intellectual History, Global Philosophy, Quranic Hermeneutics, Exegesis, Shiʿi Islam
Dr Clemence Scalbert-Yucel	Senior Lecturer in Ethnopolitics Kurdish literature, cultural production, heritage, rurality and ecology, Turkey, Kurdistan
Dr Emily Selove	Lecturer of Medieval Arabic Language and Literature Medieval Arabic literature, magic, sympotic literature, banquet literature, wine, sexuality, reception
Professor Gareth Stansfield	Al-Qasimi Professor of Gulf Studies, Professor of Middle East Politics, Director for the Centre of Kurdish Studies
Dr Lise Storm	Senior Lecturer in Middle East Politics, Director of Education
Dr Suha Taji-Farouki	Senior Lecturer in Modern Islam
Associate Professor Marc Valeri	Associate Professor in Political Economy of the Middle East, Director - Centre for Gulf Studies, College Director of Postgraduate Research Gulf monarchies; political economy; political sociology; comparative (Middle East) politics; authoritarianism; state-business relations.

Research Staff
Amin Ehteshami	Research Fellow
Dr Nadia Khalaf	Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Dr Nadia Naser-Najjab	Research Fellow in Palestine Studies
Dr Davide Pettinato	Research Fellow Islam; Muslims; Islam in the UK; British Muslims; climate change; sustainable development; water; Muslim NGOs; Muslim charities; framing; communication; civic engagement.
Kumail Rajani	Research Fellow

Professional Services Staff
Tom Allen	SSIS Student Recruitment Administrator
Melissa Barrett	Widening Participation and Student Recruitment Assistant
Gemma Bartlett ACIM	Strategic Marketing Campaign Manager
Kate Blackmore	Outreach Officer- Communications & Corporate Affairs
Sarah Firman	Project Administrator
Leo Leandro Rodrigues	Project and Web Development Manager (MESnet)
Sarah Lucas	Communications and Marketing Officer
Eleanor Monger	Student Recruitment and Admissions Manager
Ramona Nash	IAIS Manager
Miss Julia Paci	Employability and Outreach Manager
Emma Reeve	Head of Communications and Marketing
Sarah Roberts	Administrator
James Smith	Business Partner, International Partnerships
Jane Tanner	Web Marketing Officer (Web Team)
Rebecca Thomson	Administrator/EA to HoD
Sarah Wood	Project Administrator

Visiting Professors
Professor Said Faiq	Visiting Professor
Professor Gerd Nonneman	Visiting Professor

Honorary Research Fellows
Dr Noor al-Qasimi	Honorary Research Fellow
Dr Saud Al-Sarhan	Honorary Senior Research Fellow
Mr Paul Auchterlonie	Honorary Research Fellow
Dr Jenny Balfour-Paul	Honorary Research Fellow
Professor Herman Bell	Professor, Senior Research Fellow
Dr Li Bingzhong	Honorary Research Fellow
Dr Farangis Ghaderi	Honorary Research Fellow
Dr Elaine M Goodwin	Honorary Research Fellow
Dr Manami Goto	Honorary Research Fellow
Dr Syahrul Hidayat	Honorary Research Fellow
Professor Mohammed Ihsan	Honorary Research Fellow
Dr Julian Jansen Van Rensburg	Honorary Research Fellow
Dr Ghada Karmi	Honorary Research Fellow
Dr Ghassan Khatib	Honorary Research Fellow
Dr Basoeki Koesasi	Honorary Research Fellow
Mr Simon Laws	Honorary Research Fellow
Jane Lewisohn	Honorary Associate Research Fellow
Mr Leslie McLoughlin	Honorary Research Fellow
Dr Sami Miaari	Honorary Research Fellow
Dr Farah Mohammad	Honorary Research Fellow
Dr Harriet Nash	Honorary Research Fellow
Dr James Onley	Honorary Research Fellow
Dr Francis Owtram	Honorary Research Fellow
Dr Sophie Richter-Devroe	Honorary Research Fellow
Dr Eskandar Sadeghi-Boroujerdi	Honorary Research Fellow
Dr Muhanad Seloom	Honorary Research Fellow
Dr Kelsey Shanks	Honorary Research Fellow
Mr Christopher Ward	Honorary Research Fellow
Dr Norbert Weismann	Honorary Research Fellow

PhD Students
Mohammad Affan	PhD student
Abdullah Alharbi	PhD student
Nathan Anderson	PhD student
Mehrdad Ali Poor Kalaei	PhD student
Clive Brown	PhD student
Rob Fuller	PhD student
Manami Goto	PhD student
Karwan Kurdi	PhD student
Monica Ronchi	PhD student
Irwan Saidin	PhD student