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| Tuesday February 9, 2010 | University of Exeter > HuSS > IAIS > Research > Kurdish Studies |
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Centre for Kurdish Studies (CKS)
Living over an area divided between Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Syria and the former Soviet Union, and with an active international diaspora, the Kurds are the largest stateless nation in the world, and the largest ethnic minority in the Middle East. They inhabit a strategic area, once a site of confrontation between Ottoman, Persian and Russian empires, later a contested border zone between modern nation-states. Although they claim a different identity from the majority in the nation-states where they live, and have made numerous attempts at self-determination, they are often consigned to a peripheral role in Turkish, Arab or Iranian studies. Our focus on Kurdish studies places the Kurds at the centre of our research and offers a chance to consider Kurdish society, culture and politics 'in the round' in all its complexity and variation, across and within nation-states. Exeter is the only British university to have developed a strong research focus in the field of Kurdish Studies. As such, we are already recognized as the leading centre of research in the field in the UK, and one of the global centres of excellence in the field. 'Kurdish Studies' obviously has at its core a focus upon the Kurds, including history, politics, religion, language and literature, anthropology, sociology, and international relations and law. As Kurds are spread across several states and a diaspora, a further important research focus engendered in the study of a 'non-state' people relates to the interaction between them and the states they exist within. The Centre of Kurdish Studies has recently benefited from generous donations from the Ibrahim Ahmed Foundation and the Kurdistan Regional Government which have enabled us to expand our staff base and our research and teaching activities. We already offer a unique MA in Kurdish Studies and are launching BA combined degrees. We are also able to provide PhD supervision in a range of subjects, according to our own varied disciplinary focus. We will be holding regular international conferences and we actively seek cooperation with other universities through participation in larger research projects and other partnerships. About CKSThe Kurdish Studies Centre was founded in 2006. We have been teaching Sorani Kurdish for a number of years and are now introducing Kurmanji. Our MA in Kurdish Studies was introduced in 2007. We are currently developing BA degrees in Middle Eastern Studies with Kurdish and Arabic and Kurdish. All of these degree programmes are unique in the UK. We continue to supervise PhDs on Kurdish subjects; we now have four full-time members of academic staff and are able to offer supervision across a range of disciplines. Our library provision, (which has always been strong for the Arab and Islamic world because of our association with the Institute of Arab and Islamic studies) has recently expanded through generous donations such as that of the Kurdistan Regional Government, who provided money specifically for the Kurdish Studies collection. We have received book donations from Kurdish universities, and now also have some unique collections such as the Omar Sheikhmous archive. We are also in close contact with scholars in other universities, many of whom come to give presentations in our Visiting Speaker Series, and are cooperating with them on a number of research projects. We are also planning regular conferences at various levels which will serve as a focus for Kurdish studies. 
ObjectivesWe aim to continue to be the leading centre of research in the field in the UK, and one of the global centres of excellence. We wish to develop further our current cooperation with scholars elsewhere, and to launch further research initiatives. With our planned programme of international conferences and workshops we also hope to provide a forum for the discussion of topics relevant to Kurdish studies. Our BA and MA programmes are designed to give students a strong grounding in both language and culture and disciplinary skills. We fully recognise that the access problems for students who wish to take up Kurdish studies are particularly acute, for both financial and political reasons, and we are particularly happy to be able to award our studentships (funded by the Kurdistan Regional Government) which will offer this opportunity to a small number of able students. We aim to continue to expand our library and archival collections in Kurdish studies, and we hope to make as much of our material as possible available in digital form for scholars worldwide. CKS StaffKurdish Studies in Exeter benefits from the activities of several members of staff recognized as specialists in different disciplinary areas: 
Dr Hashem Ahmadzadeh (BA Zahidan, BA MA PhD Uppsala) is Lecturer in Kurdish Language and Literature and Director of the CKS. His research interests range across the humanities and social sciences. In the field of language and literature, he works upon the emergence and development of the Kurdish novel, and he also teaches history and politics courses. As a social scientist, Dr Ahmadzadeh is particularly interested in constructs of nationalism among the Kurds, and undertaking comparative analyses of the Kurdish situation across different states. Dr Gareth Stansfield (BA MA PhD Durham) is Professor in Middle East Politics. His research interests with regard to Kurdish Studies fall within the disciplinary areas of political science and international relations. His recent work has focused upon the political development of the Kurds of Iraq in the 1990s; the formation and activities of the Kurdistan Regional Government in Iraq; and the wider position of the Kurds in the Iraqi state following regime change in 2003, with a particular focus upon the discourse regarding federalism. He is currently researching the political development of post-2003 Iraq and particularly the interaction of religious and ethnic groups and conceptions of nationalism and federalism. Professor Christine Allison (BA Oxon, PhD SOAS, London) is Associate Professor of Kurdish Studies. Her research concerns the relationship between oral and written,oral literatures and popular culture, especially in Kurmanji-speaking areas. She also has a strong interest in minority religions especially Yezidism. She is currently writing on discourses of memory. Dr Clémence Scalbert Yücel (BA in geography, university of Toulouse Le Mirail, BA in Kurdish Language, INALCO Paris, Ph.D Paris IV- Sorbonne) is Lecturer in Ethnopolitics. Her Ph.D focussed on the relationship between language and nationalism, the emergence of a Kurdish national language and the development of a field of Kurdish literature. She is now working on issues surrounding minority cultural production in Turkey, and, in collaboration with Professor Stansfield, on the formation and organisation of transborder territories. 
Other members of the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies have research interests in the Kurdish areas: Professor Tim Niblock (BA Oxon, DPhil Sussex) is Professor of Arab Gulf Studies. His research interests cover domestic Middle East politics, international relations, and political economy. He is currently focusing upon issues relating to the formation of civil society in the region, and processes of democratization. Dr Sajjad Rizvi (BA MA MPhil Oxon, PhD Cantab) is Lecturer in Islamic Studies. He has particular research interests in Islamic thought, philosophy, and mysticism, and particular in relation to the Naqshbandi and Qadiri orders found in Kurdistan. Advisory Board (To be confirmed) Contact us
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Research Interests Related links
Electoral Profile: Iran / Presidential election 12 June 2009, at TEIM Election Watch Analysis, Madrid, 12 July 2009.PhD studentships in the field of Kurdish StudiesMA Studentships in Kurdish StudiesCentre for Kurdish Studies International Conference 2009 |
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