Mahir A Aziz, Full-time PhD
"I completed my BA in Sociology at the University of Salahadin in Arbil - Iraqi Kurdistan, in 1988. I then went onto take an MA in Sociology at Baghdad University in 1990, after which time I was appointed as a lecturer at the Sociology Department at the University of Salahadin.
My interest in research led me to come to the UK to improve my academic training. I obtained an MSc in Politics and Sociology at Birkbeck College, of the University of London, in 1999 and then chose to study at the University of Exeter. For me the great attraction of Exeter was its noted expertise in the field of Middle East Studies in general, and Kurdish and Iraqi studies in particular.
After contacting Dr Gareth Stanfield who specialises in Kurdish politics at Exeter's Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, I registered on a full-time PhD under his supervision in 2004. The facilities for research at Exeter are excellent, in particular at the University's Institute for Arab and Islamic Studies, which has a dedicated 'Middle East' library collection, in addition to there being several staff working on my area. My PhD is about national identity in Kurdistan-Iraq. I am looking particularly at Kurdish nationalism and the conception of young educated Kurds toward their national identity.
I am really enojoying my time here at Exeter, and would recommend the university to anyone from Iraq or from Kurdistan."
