M.Phil. in Middle Eastern Studies

Our M.Phil is a one-year programme which aims to give graduate students an opportunity to develop their analytical, research and writing skills in preparation for further academic research or entry to professions requiring such skills.

At the present time, the majority of students take the MPhil by dissertation-only. This entails working closely with one supervisor throughout the year on a 25,000 word dissertation to be submitted in mid-August. The submission date for 2012 is Friday 17 August (12 noon, Faculty Office).

During the year, M.Phil students attend various training courses offered by the Department in codicology, text reading, and other skills. They are also encouraged to attend fourth year undergraduate lectures and language courses where relevant. They also attend graduate work-in-progress seminars and have an opportunity to present their own work to their peers for feedback in a supportive environment.

The one-year taught M.Phil is currently under reconstruction. Applicants interested in applying for a taught programme should consult the Graduate Programmes Administrator directly.

Recent M.Phil. Students - Research Topics

Mr Charlie Gammell
The Role of Azali Babism in the Constitutional Revolution: A Reappraisal
Pembroke College
Middle Eastern & Islamic Studies (Persian)
Supervisor: Professor Charles Melville

Mr Rupert Horsley
Classical Arabic Hunting Poetry
Wolfson College
Middle Eastern & Islamic Studies (Arabic)
Supervisor: Professor James Montgomery

Miss Mandkhai Lkhaguasuren
The Mongol Khanates in Central Asia in the Fourteenth Century
Murray Edwards College
Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies (Persian)
Supervisor: Professor Charles Melville

Miss Paula Long
Remembering Edward Said: Collective Memory, Counter-Narrative and Identity
Newnham College
Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies (Arabic)
Supervisor: Professor Yasir Suleiman

Mr Chaoqun Lian
The Cairo Language Academy and Arabic Language Management in Egypt
King's College
Middle Eastern & Islamic Studies (Arabic)
Supervisor: Professor Yasir Suleiman

Mr Andrew Mecham
The Jewish Role in Muslim Self-Definition: Classical 'Abbasid Religious Polemic
Pembroke College
Middle Eastern & Islamic Studies (Arabic)
Supervisor: Dr Amira Bennison

Mr Bayan Parvizi
Iran in the Greater Game, 1919 - 1941
 Pembroke College
Middle Eastern & Islamic Studies (Turkish)
Supervisor: Dr Kate Fleet

Rafal Stepien
The Mystic Poetry of Attar NeishaSuri
Robinson College
Middle Eastern & Islamic Studies (Persian)
Supervisor: Dr Christine van Ruymbeke

James Weaver
Ibn Rushd's Tahafut Al-Tahafut: Aristotle and the Almohads in a 12th Centrury Philosophical Polemic
Trinity Hall
Middle Eastern & Islamic Studies (Arabic)
Supervisor: Professor James Montgomery

Balqis Al-Karaki
Qur'anic Intertextuality in Selected poems by Mahmoud Drawish
Clare College
Middle Eastern & Islamic Studies (Arabic)
Supervisor: Dr Kate Daniels

Nicholas Lanoie
Antiquity in the Egyptian Literary Imagination: Selected Works of Naguib Mahfouz, 1939 - 1945
Downing College
Middle Eastern & Islamic Studies (Arabic)
Supervisor: Dr Kate Daniels

Nourmamadcho Nourmamadchoev
Political and Social History of Badakhshan up to the end of the 11th century
Pembroke College
Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies (Persian)
Supervisor: Professor Charles Melville

Kate Swearengen
Resistance to French Colonialism in Algeria, 1830-1872
St. John's College
Modern Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies (Arabic)
Supervisor: Dr Amira Bennison

Inclusion on this list is on an entirely voluntary basis. This is not, therefore, a complete listing. Information included above was supplied by the students themselves. Please report errors or problems to the webmaster.