SOAS interdisciplinary Centre for Gender Studies, housed in the Faculty of Law and Social Sciences and the Faculty for Languages and Cultures, has been established to promote the study of gender in relation to Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Its primary objectives are to promote interdisciplinary research and teaching in the field of Gender Studies with particular reference to Asia, Africa and the Middle East; and to provide a forum for collaboration in the research and teaching of Gender Studies both within SOAS and in conjunction with other institutions. The Centre provides an administrative and intellectual home for the School's MA programme in Gender Studies as well as the MPhil/PhD in Gender Studies.
Persons involved in the project
Professor Lynn Welchman is Professor of Law at the SOAS School of Law with particular reference to the MENA region. She is on the Board of the Euro-Mediterranean Foundation for the support of Human Rights Defenders. Before joining SOAS, Welchman worked full-time in human rights, mostly for Palestinian human rights organisations (al-Haq and CIHRE), and she continues research and advocacy activities for international human rights organisations in Tunisia, Morocco, Yemen and Jordan. Among her publications: (2007) Women and Muslim Family Laws in Arab States. A Comparative Overview of Textual Development and Advocacy. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. (2000) Beyond the Code: Muslim Family Law and the Shar''i Judiciary in the Palestinian West Bank. Kluwer Law International. With S. Hossein eds (2005) Honour: Crimes, Paradigms and Violence against Women. Zed Books (London).(2004) Women's Rights and Islamic Family Law: Perspectives on Reform. Zed Press.
Dr Ruba Salih, PhD, Social Anthropology (Sussex) is a Reader in Gender Studies and the Chair of the Centre for Gender Studies at SOAS. Her research interests and writing cover the broad areas of transnational migration and gender across the Mediterranean, multiculturalism and citizenship; gender, Islam and modernity, gender and Islam in Europe, the Palestine question and Palestinian refugees. Among her publications: (2003) Gender in Transnationalism. Home, Longing and Belonging Among Moroccan Migrant Women. London and New York: Routledge; (2009) (guest editors) (with A. Moors) of a special issue on ‘Muslim women’ in Europe: secular normativities, bodily performances and multiple publics”, Social Anthropology, Volume 17 Issue 4. She is currently working on three projects: a special issue of the Arab Studies Journal on “Cultures of Resistance: The Case of Palestine and Beyond” (with S. Richter-Devore) (2014) and two co-authored monographs "Rethinking Palestinian Refugeehood" (with Sophie Richter-Devroe), and “Gendering the Middle East” (with Nadje Al-Ali) both under consideration with Cambridge University Press. (2014)
Dr Corinna Mullin holds a PhD from the London School of Economics and Political Sciences. She is currently Research Associate in the Department of Politics and International Studies at SOAS, as well as a Visiting Assistant Professor in International Relations at the University of Tunis (Morouj). Her current research focuses on the role of different civil society actors in the transitional justice process in Tunisia. She is also co-editing on EU-MENA relations in light of the ‘Arab spring’ uprisings (forthcoming, Routledge). Additional research interests include: political Islam, gender, human rights, youth activism, identity politics, critical terrorism studies and comparative political theory.
Elena Zambelli holds a degree in Political Science from the University of Bologna and a Master in Gender and Development from the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex. In the past ten years, she has been working in gender and development programs in the Arab region (Palestine, Lebanon, Tunisia, Jordan) for a number of international organisations (Oxfam GB and Oxfam Québec, Italian Embassy in Lebanon, UN-INSTRAW). She is currently a 2nd year PhD student in Gender Studies at the School of Oriental Studies, London.
Afaf Jabiri is a leading women’s rights activist in Jordan and across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), advocating for legal reform and policy change at the local, national and international levels. She is currently a PhD candidate at the Centre for Gender Studies, SOAS.
Main tasks attributed to SOAS
-Partner in WP1, WP2, WP3, WP4, WP6, WP7 and WP8
