Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies

The Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies (formerly the Faculty of Oriental Studies),^[1] is a subdivision of the University of Oxford.

The faculty is engaged in a broad range of research and teaching on modern and historical Asian and Middle Eastern studies, focusing on politics, language, and culture. The faculty's main building is located on Pusey Lane near the Ashmolean Museum and Sackler Library, with some research centres of the faculty having their own buildings elsewhere in Oxford (such as the Middle East Centre based at St. Antony's College, Oxford). The faculty is part of the Humanities Division at the University of Oxford. The faculty has its own library for students and professors, which is both a lending library and a reading room of the Bodleian Library.

The faculty was known as the Faculty of Oriental Studies until 1 August 2022, when the name was changed to Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies. The name was changed due to its perceived colonial implications.^[2]

Sub-faculties

The faculty is divided into three sub-faculties based on subject area, including:

Sub-Faculty of Middle Eastern Studies, which covers
- Department of the Islamic World
- Department of Modern Middle Eastern Studies
- Department of Hebrew and Jewish Studies (also based at the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies)
- Department of Egyptology and Ancient Near Eastern Studies (also based at the Griffith Institute)
Sub-Faculty of South and Inner Asian Studies, which covers
- Hindi and Urdu politics, language, and culture
- Sanskrit (classical and Vedic)
- Tibetan and Himalayan Cultural Studies
Sub-Faculty of East Asian Studies (also based at the Eastern Art Department of the Ashmolean Museum), which covers
- Chinese (based at the University of Oxford China Centre, Canterbury Road)
- Japanese (also based at the Nissan Institute of Japanese Studies, Winchester Road )
- Korean, politics, and culture

Notable people

Statutory professorships (as of 2024^[update]):

Regius Professor of Hebrew – vacant
Laudian Professor of Arabic – Julia Bray
Professor of Egyptology – Richard B. Parkinson
Boden Professor of Sanskrit – James Mallinson
Calouste Gulbenkian Professor of Armenian Studies – Theo Maarten van Lint^[3]
Spalding Professor of Eastern Religion and Ethics – Diwakar Acharya
I.M. Pei Professor of Islamic Art and Architecture – Alain Fouad George^[4]
Stanley Ho Professor of Chinese History – Henrietta Harrison
Soudavar Professor of Persian Studies – Edmund Herzig
Yehan Numata Professor of Buddhist Studies – Stefano Zacchetti^[5]
Khalid bin Abdullah Al Saud Professor for the Study of the Contemporary Arab World – Marilyn Booth
HH Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani Professor of Contemporary Islamic Studies – vacant

Other notable current academics:

References

^ "History of the Faculty". orinst.web.ox.ac.uk. Retrieved 18 September 2022.
^ Clarence-Smith, Louisa (21 September 2022). "Oxford renames Oriental Institute over links to 'colonialism and imperialism'". The Telegraph. Retrieved 25 September 2022.
^ "Theo Maarten van Lint". Faculty of Oriental Studies. University of Oxford. Retrieved 28 November 2018.
^ "Alain Fouad George". Faculty of Oriental Studies. University of Oxford. Retrieved 28 November 2018.
^ "Professor Stefano Zacchetti". Balliol College. University of Oxford. Retrieved 28 November 2018.