Institute Staff

Staff office hours and research leave

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Institute Director
Professor Gareth Stansfield	Institute Director, Al-Qasimi Professor of Arab Gulf Studies, Professor of Middle East Politics

Academic Staff
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
Ferah Burgul	Turkish Language Tutor
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
Dr Ahmed Dailami	Lecturer in the History of the Gulf and Arabian Peninsula
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 Algeria Tunisia Morocco Maghreb North Africa Libya Mauritania Senegal Art Painting Culture History Decolonial Subaltern Violence Time Global
Dr Eleanor Gao	Senior Lecturer in Middle Eastern Politics Good governance, local government, identity (especially tribal) politics, politics of the Arab world
Associate Professor Jonathan Githens-Mazer	Associate Professor in Ethno-Politics Theories of nationalism,ethno-symbolist approaches to nationalism, ethnic conflict, national myths, memories and symbols, nationalist mobilisation, Irish nationalism, Algerian nationalism, radicalisation
Professor Robert Gleave	Professor of Arabic Studies Hermeneutics and Scriptural Exegesis in Islam, Islamic Law, in particular works of Islamic legal theory (usul al-fiqh), Violence and its justification in Islamic thought, Shi'ism, in particular Shi'i legal and political theory
Professor Timothy Insoll	Al-Qasimi Professor of African and Islamic Archaeology Islamic Archaeology; Later African Archaeology; Archaeology and materiality of African indigenous religions; Arabian Gulf Archaeology; Archaeology of West African empires; Mali; Ghana; Songhay; Red Sea; Ethiopia; Bahrain; India; Indian Ocean trade networks; Ethnoarchaeology of African shrines and medicine practices; Representation of Islam in Museums
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 feminist theory; political violence; decolonisation; Palestine/Israel; affect and embodiment; temporality; political mobilisation and participation; creative pedagogies; performative research methodologies
Emeritus Professor Ian Netton	Professor Emeritus Islamic theology and philosophy, Anthropology of religion (especially ritual), Sufism, mediaeval Arab travellers, Arabic and Islamic bibliography, comparative textuality and semiotics, comparative religion
Emeritus Professor Tim Niblock	Professor Emeritus
Ms Abla Oudeh Mahmoud	Lecturer
Professor Ilan Pappé	Professor of History, Director of the European Centre for Palestine Studies.
Dr Christina Phillips	Senior Lecturer in Arabic Literature and Media Arabic and Arab anglophone writing, comparative literature, translation studies, postcolonial theory.
Dr Ross Porter	Lecturer Anthropology of time, ethics, the state, revolution, freedom
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
Associate Professor Christine Robins (formerly Allison)	Ibrahim Ahmed Professor of Kurdish Studies. Kurds, Kurdish, Kurmanji, memory, religous minority, Yezidi, Mandaean, narrative responsibility, speech genre, orality, literacy
Dr Clemence Scalbert-Yucel	Senior Lecturer in Ethnopolitics Kurdish literature, cultural production, heritage, rurality and ecology, Turkey, Kurdistan
Dr Emily Selove	Senior Lecturer of Medieval Arabic Language and Literature Medieval Arabic literature, magic, sympotic literature, banquet literature, wine, sexuality, reception
Dr Lise Storm	Senior Lecturer in Middle East Politics, Director of Education Democracy; democratization; authoritarianism; political parties; party systems; democracy assistance; aid; development; SDG16.
Dr Suha Taji-Farouki	Senior Lecturer in Modern Islam modern and contemporary Islam and Islamic thought, sufism, Muslim devotionalism, Muslim prayer, Ibn 'Arabi in the modern world, Islamic movements, political Islam, Islamic radicalism, Qur'anic studies, interfaith relations
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 Law, Authority and Learning in Imami Shi’ite Islam
Dr Farangis Ghaderi	Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Dr Paul Gledhill	Research Fellow on LAWALISI Project
Dr Nadia Khalaf	Postdoctoral Research Fellow African Archaeology; Islamic Archaeology; landscape archaeology; satellite remote sensing; Geographical Information Systems (GIS); cultural heritage management
Dr Nadia Naser-Najjab	Research Fellow in Palestine Studies Palestine Israel Setter Colonialism Resistance Decolonisation Civil Society Solidarity Neoliberalism reconciliation
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.
Dr Raha Rafii	Research Fellow Law, Authority and Learning in Imami Shi’ite Islam
Kumail Rajani	Research Fellow Law, Authority and Learning in Imami Shi’ite Islam

Professional Services Staff
Tom Allen	SSIS Student Recruitment Administrator
Melissa Barrett	Widening Participation Coordinator
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
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 Maria Fierro	Al-Qasimi Professor of Islamic Studies

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 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
Hannah Parsons	PhD student
Monica Ronchi	PhD student
Irwan Saidin	PhD student