SOAS University of London is the only higher education institution in Europe specialising in the study of Asia, Africa and the Middle East. It is a global academic base with the highest concentration of experts focusing on these regions in Europe.
Our scholars grapple with pressing issues – from democracy, development, human rights and identity to legal systems, poverty, religion and social change. Crucially, our experts critique the world from the perspective of our regions to provide in-depth and informed analysis on some of the most challenging issues in our time.
SOAS is also a guardian of specialised knowledge in languages and regions not available anywhere else in the UK. The SOAS Library is one of the most important resources for the study of Asia, Africa and the Middle East as well as our Archives and Special Collections which document British interaction with Africa and Asia over the last 250 years.
In a world where globalisation works to shrinks borders, but where nationalism, difference and regionalism also present themselves acutely, SOAS is distinctively positioned to analyse, understand and explain.
The 2015 elections in Nigeria were chaotic, but the country’s voters displayed immense courage in showing up at all. More than 20 people were killed, not in electoral violence between competing parties…
The Conservatives are campaigning on the idea that they have succeeded at reducing the UK’s fiscal deficit. But deficit reduction has been an economic failure.
Last year I shared a panel with Nigeria’s deputy electoral commissioner, who assured our audience without reservation that everything would be ready on time for the 2015 presidential election. It is apparently…
Syriza’s surge to power with a campaign against austerity has forced politicians across Europe to justify their economic policies. The UK chancellor was hot-off-the-mark to assure everyone that the Greek…
The Zambian presidential election of January 20, held to choose a president to eke out the late Michael Sata’s term, were conducted amid thunderstorms that struck the entire country. Thanks to the awful…
Greece faces a decisive moment on January 25 in a snap election that could see major gains for the extreme left and right. But anyone worried about how Syriza on one side, or Golden Dawn on the other…
The Roman god, Saturn, ate his children, but was overthrown by one who got away. For politicians, the moral of the story is that you have to keep eating them, and hunt down all who might escape. That is…
It is a name that most will have heard of, but few, perhaps, actually know much about. But Marco Polo, an epic ten-episode programme hosted by Netflix, may change that. The show has already been dubbed…
An opinion poll taken in the wake of George Osborne’s Autumn statement reveals that just 27% of people think the British economy is in good shape. This was a decline compared to a survey taken just three…
The umbrellas were out in full force on Monday night in the Admiralty district of Hong Kong – but mainly because it was actually raining. A few hundred people, myself included, had shown up to listen to…
Thailand’s prime minister, General Prayut Chan-ocha, has a problem on his hands. You may be surprised to learn that this problem is in the form of a teen fantasy film – The Hunger Games. Imagine Obama…
I was living and working in Africa at the time of Band Aid 1984. I found the song Do They Know it’s Christmas? cloying, but I recognised that it was mobilising ordinary citizens towards concern and compassion…
Those of us that follow the mainstream media encounter information but few genuine insights. Recently one jumped off the page at me in a Financial Times piece. In an otherwise undistinguished endorsement…
According to some commentators, something quite strange is happening in the United States in the run-up to the midterm elections. US president Barack Obama’s Democrats are heading for a clunking defeat…
To Zambians, the international community’s astonishment that, for 90 days, the acting Zambian president will be a white man seems remarkable. The first fully white president of an independent majority-ruled…
Readers of the Financial Times would have recently encountered a story that encompasses the paper’s version of bad/good news when it comes to the oil business. According to the author Daniel Yergin, the…
Professorial Research Associate at Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, and Centre for Creative Industries, Media and Screen Studies, SOAS, University of London