Research in Middle Eastern Studies
RAE Success for Middle Eastern Studies at Manchester
Middle Eastern Studies at The University of Manchester has achieved a successful outcome in the recent Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) 2008. A total of 60% of that research was judged to be in the two top quality categories of 4*(world-leading) and 3* (internationally excellent).
The department, which has expertise in all the cultures and languages and of the Middle East (including Arabic, Persian, Turkish and Hebrew), forms part of the School of Languages, Linguistics and Cultures which RAE 2008 which has demonstrated that it is among the leading units of its kind in the country.
The success is a further reflection of the standing of Middle Eastern Studies at Manchester, which was also recently successful in a joint bid with Edinburgh and Durham for the national HEFCE-funded Centre for the Advanced Study of the Arab World. Moreover, the University of Manchester has emerged from this RAE as one of the UK's top four or five universities for research and one which boasts a breadth of research achievement spread across more distinct discipline areas than any other UK institution.
Middle Eastern Studies at Manchester offers exceptionally wide-ranging opportunities for research and advanced training in the history, languages, religious traditions and politics of the Middle East. Research embraces the historical-literary study of classical periods, as well as current approaches in the exploration of the social, cultural, literary or religious characteristics of the contemporary Middle East.
Staff research interests include modern Islamic thought, the role of women in the Muslim world, translation studies, Israeli culture, modern Jewish thought, 20th century relations between Europe and the Arab Middle East as well as Iran, alongside classical Islamic history, Shiism, rabbinic Judaism, Turkic linguistics and the pre-Islamic and Christian history of the Middle East.
Some of Manchester's experts in Middle Eastern Studies contribute to the public debate on contemporary cultural-religious issues in the UK, or are part of the Middle Eastern discourses on the preservation of national heritages, gender roles or the relations between East and West.
Manchester is also the editorial home of the internationally renowned academic periodical Journal of Semitic Studies, which recently celebrated its fiftieth anniversary.
Ongoing Research Projects
Research Centres
- Centre for the Advanced Study of the Arabic World (CASAW)
- Centre for Translation and Cultural Studies (CTIS)
- Centre for Jewish Studies (based in the Faculty of Humanities)
Middle Eastern Studies Research Profiles
Dr Oliver Bast: Modern Iranian History; diplomacy and the relations between Iran and European countries in the 20th century.
Dr Moshe Behar: The Arab-Israeli conflict; Israeli society, politics and culture; Middle Eastern Jews; the relational consolidation of Jewish and Arab nationalisms within a comparative framework.
Dr Ronald Buckley: Modern Arabic language and literature; medieval Arab history and religion; Shiism.
Dr Andreas Christmann: Religious thought and practice in 20th Century Islam with particular emphasis on Egypt and Syria; the impact of Islamic reformism and revivalism on contemporary tasawwuf; modern tafsir and Qur'anic hermeneutics.
Professor Hoda Elsadda: Modern Arabic literature and gender studies; discourses on gender in Arab cultural history and oral histories of Arab women.
Professor John Healey: West Semitic Epigraphy, especially Aramaic (including Nabataean); Syriac, Mandaic and related dialects; Ancient Syria, Jordan and Arabia; Semitic Religion.
Dr Philip Sadgrove: Modern Arabic Literature; the Nahdah; Arab Journalism; Arabic Drama; Zanzibar.
Professor Alexander Samely: Jewish Studies; Rabbinic hermeneutics and legal discourse; Targums; literary structures in the Jewish pseudepigrapha; the philosophy of Spinoza and of 20th century Jewish thinkers.