The Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies offers PhD students the opportunity to pursue research which spans our broad range of expertise. Our researchers are engaged in internationally recognised work in the history, literature, linguistics, social anthropology, sociology, politics and contemporary culture of the Middle East, North Africa, China, Japan and the two Koreas. In addition the work of several staff crosses traditional boundaries, both geographical and subject based.
We welcome applications from qualified applicants who wish to undertake a three-year course consisting of individual supervisions and guided research, resulting in a thesis of up to 80,000 words. The degree will be granted on the basis of this thesis and an oral examination (viva voce).
There is full information about the course and how to apply on the Postgraduate Admissions pages. You will be expected to achieve a continuation mark of at least 67% in your current Masters degree and satisfy any pre-existing requirements also set by the Degree Committee, for example the English language requirement.
EU and International students can find information about their country's equivalent continuation requirements from the Postgraduate Admissions International Qualifications page.
Before you apply, it is essential that you contact your prospective supervisor to discuss your proposed research. A full list of supervisors for Middle Eastern, East Asian and South Asian Studies, showing their research interests is found below. Please see our Research pages for more information about the kind of work carried out in the Faculty.
We encourage you to discuss your draft PhD research proposal with a prospective supervisor. We recommend writing a proposal that is fewer than 3,000 words in length. You may then submit this as one of the documents in your application.
You may also wish to look at the list of our current PhD students, including their thesis topics.
The following information is correct for entry in the 2024/5 academic year. Applications for this year open on 4 September 2024 and close on 16 May 2025. If you wish to be considered for funding the deadline for submitting your application is 3 December 2024.
Funding opportunity: we are delighted to announce that Queens' College are offering the Yen Ming Deh Scholarship. This is open to all applicants starting a PhD or MPhil in Asian and Middle Eastern Studies in 2025, and preference may be given to candidates specialising in Chinese studies. Applicants should apply using the application form and the deadline is 30 April 2025.
Supervisors - Middle Eastern Studies
*Dr Anderson will be on sabbatical in 2025/6. He will therefore not be able to accept any postgraduate students for supervision from MT2025 - ET2026.*
Dr Anderson is open to receiving applications for MPhil and PhD projects from students with a training in social anthropology, who want to work on projects that contribute to current debates in anthropology, particularly in relation to the anthropology of Islam, ethics or commerce; or the anthropology of Syria.
Applicants for PhD study should have some prior academic training in anthropology, which is also usually offered as part of the MPhil by advanced study programme.
Dr Ashraf welcomes inquiries from prospective MPhil and PhD students who are interested in projects relating to the history of Iran and the Persian-speaking world, from the early modern to modern periods broadly defined.
Professor Bennison is happy to supervise graduate students in work relating to the pre-modern history of the Maghrib and Islamic cultural history, including the Medieval Islamic West
Dr Kantor would be happy to supervise students with similar research interests.
Professor Khan is happy to supervise projects relating to any area of his research.
Professor Marsham is happy to supervise graduate students in work relating to pre-modern Islamic History.
Dr Monier is open to supervising research on the following topics:
The politics of the modern Arab World.
State-Society relations in Egypt, Iraq, Kuwait, the UAE, Bahrain and Oman.
Nationalism and state-building.
Identity politics and sectarianism.
Minorities.
Regional power, geopolitics and Arab diplomacy.
Professor Montgomery is interested in supervising students with similar research interests.
Dr Olszok is happy to supervise students who wish to work in fields of Arabic literature in which she has expertise.
I welcome inquiries from potential MPhil and PhD students with research interests relevant to my interests in modern Hebrew literary history, Israeli cinema and Israeli culture more generally, primarily the creation of a native Hebrew culture in Palestine/Eretz Israel at the beginning of the twentieth century and its legacy.
*Prof van Ruymbeke will be on sabbatical in 2025/6. She will therefore not be able to accept any postgraduate students for supervision from MT2025 - ET2026.*
Prof van Ruymbeke welcomes approaches from potential graduate students with research interests relevant to hers. She requests that prospective students email her to discuss their proposed projects before sending in their applications.
Dr Christine van Ruymbeke talks about postgraduate studies in Persian Literature
Supervisors - East Asian Studies
Having supervised graduate students in a range of fields, including premodern and modern Japanese history, premodern literature as well as Buddhism, Professor Adolphson would welcome enquiries from motivated graduate students and young scholars from across the world.
I am happy to supervise postgraduate research students in the areas of Chinese religious and ritual life; social and cultural change in modern/contemporary China; Chinese environmentalism(s); the local state; urban renewal; China and the overseas Chinese and other topics relating to social anthropology of contemporary China.
I supervise students for both MPhil and PhD research on a wide range of topics. Current and past students have worked on topics including: the financing of the local state through land sales; the PRC’s bilingual policies for minority nationalities; political factors in the pricing of traditional Chinese painting and calligraphy in contemporary China; economic development and religion in a Shanxi Catholic village; overseas Chinese students' luxury consumption; urban re-development and city branding; the rise of vegetarian restaurants in Taiwan; court practices in contemporary urban China; Chinese-language schools and the re-sinicisation of the Sino-Thai; self-portraits in contemporary Chinese avant-garde art; neighbourhood dance groups and contested urban spaces; Haier in India; migrant workers' protests; the development of heritage culture in a local town in Shandong; the registration of householder Daoist priests; the late Qing government's policies towards the overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia; mainland Chinese immigrants in a new town in the New Territories of Hong Kong; the culture of wine drinking and connoisseurship in contemporary urban China; Hui Muslim cultural practices and identity in China; civil society and popular bloggers; the contemporary Chinese painter LIU Ye; Chinese foodways in the era of the internet; Tibetan Buddhism amongst the Han; the worship of the Yellow Emperor in contemporary China; money and popular religion in north China; goddess cults in southeast coastal China; Buddhist clerics in Wuhan during the early PRC period; temple cults in Malaysia; the formation of the 'education sphere' (教育界) in China in the early 20th century; name-changing practices amongst the Sino-Thai; etc.
I will be on sabbatical leave during the 2025-26 academic year and will not take on new MPhil students for that year. However, I will still consider PhD applications for 2025 entry.
I welcome proposals for graduate work in the areas of late-imperial Chinese literature, print culture, and Chinese religions.
Unconstrained by most disciplinary boundaries and with broad interests, I have supervised and worked with PhD students in politics, sociology, development studies, law, history, and area studies. I am eager to work with exceptional graduate students seeking to take on big challenges and substantively important topics, ready to spend significant energy and time extracting and gathering original data at close range, and aspiring to develop and deploy new concepts, theories, and ideas to shake and remake the field.
Dr Inwood is happy to supervise students in topics relating to her research on modern and contemporary Chinese literature, culture and media.
*Professor Kushner will be on sabbatical leave until September of 2026 but welcomes applications for the PhD programme with a start in the fall of 2026. Potential applicants should contact Professor Kushner directly for queries about 2026 admission.*
Prof. Kushner is pleased to supervise graduate students interested in imperial and postwar Japanese history, 20th century Japan-Taiwan, as well as Sino-Japanese relations, the history of the Cold War in East Asia, and history of war crimes in East Asia.
Prof Moretti welcomes graduate students interested in Japanese premodern and early modern literature. She also strongly encourages projects that investigate early modern Japanese culture more broadly, including visual culture and woodblock prints; book history and/or textual scholarship in Japan; Japanese palaeography and calligraphy, and art.. She is also keen to supervise projects that work on issues of adaptation, canon-making, intervisuality, playfulness, humour, satire, metafiction, didactic prose, medicine in popular culture, and transmedia storytelling.
Dr Nilsson-Wright is happy to supervise graduate students who wish to work on East Asian politics, international relations and diplomatic history, particularly with reference to Japan, North and South Korea and US relations with Northeast Asia.
Dr Steger welcomes inquiries from talented young scholars to work under her supervision. She is willing and able to supervise a wide range of topics related to Japanese contemporary society. Please contact her by e-mail prior to application and submit a draft research proposal (ask for guidelines).
Chinese thought; pre-imperial and early imperial cultural history; natural history; classical Chinese language.
Prof. Sterckx will be on research leave during the academic year 2024-25 and is unable to take new students or host visiting scholars during that period.
Prof van de Ven is happy to supervise graduate students in a range of topics relating to modern Chinese history. He is interested in the history of war, the history of the Chinese Communist Party, and economic and political history.
Prof van de Ven is not currently taking any MPhil students.
Dr Young is pleased to supervise graduate students interested in modern and contemporary Japanese and Okinawan literature, particularly where linked to themes and issues of imperialism, decolonisation, gender and sexuality, multilinguality, and translation.
Dr Ling Zhang 張玲 is interested in working with postgraduate research students who seek to study middle-period China with interests in political economy, science and technology, environment and ecology, as well as the relationship between ecology and diverse knowledge systems (official knowledge, vernacular knowledge, embodied know-how, tools and infrastructure, medicine and healing, religious and cultural practices, etc.). She is also interested in working with students who wish to explore the above-mentioned issues in comparative contexts.
Supervisors - South Asian Studies
Prof. Vergiani is happy to supervise graduate students on work relating to his research.