Research areas
If you are interested in pursuing an MPhil/PhD in Kurdish Studies, we can provide supervision and expertise in the following subject areas:
• diaspora and migration studies
• Islamic studies, culture, philosophy and law
• Kurdish studies
• Middle East politics, economics, society, history and culture
• modern Islamist movements
• social anthropology of the Middle East
• women and gender studies
• Islamic material culture
MPhil/PhD students work alongside researchers within the following research centres.
Centre for Kurdish Studies
This unique centre promotes academic investigations in Kurdish Studies in an interdisciplinary manner and will commission a new peer-reviewed academic journal. Currently, members associated with the Centre cover subjects including politics and international relations, gender studies, geography, sociology, language and literature, Islamic studies and history. Thanks to generous grants from the Prime Minister’s office of the Kurdistan Regional Government, the President of Iraq and Ibrahim Ahmed Foundation, Exeter is the only British university to teach both Sorani and Kurmanji Kurdish.
The Exeter Centre for Ethno-Political Studies
This university supported centre is ‘global’ in its vision, and not constrained to one particular part of the world. The centre seeks to encourage the development of theoretical fields of study, alongside an empirical focus on different parts of the world. In addition to having world-class academics focusing on modern ethno-political conflict (in Palestine, Iraq, Ireland and FRY, for example), the centre promotes and conducts research into the history and contemporary prominence of communal tensions in Western societies, and how government policies affect institutions of civil society that have the potential to bridge the split caused by ethnic and communal differences. Of particular interest are those ethno-political situations that have now been resolved as they may provide valuable lessons when considering contemporary disputes.
