The Team
Muslims, Trust and Cultural Dialogue
Director – Peter Morey
Peter Morey is Professor of English and Postcolonial Studies at the University of East London. He has published widely in the fields of colonial and postcolonial literary and cultural studies. His books include, Fictions of India: Narrative and Power (Edinburgh UP, 2000), Rohinton Mistry (Manchester UP, 2004), Alternative Indias: Writing, Nation and Communalism (Rodopi, 2006), Framing Muslims: Stereotyping and Representation after 9/11 (Harvard UP, 2011) and Culture, Diaspora and Modernity in Muslim Writing (Routledge, 2012). Between 2007 and 2010 he was Principal Investigator in the AHRC Network award-funded project, Framing Muslims, which explored the representation of Muslims in contemporary, historical and geographical contexts.
Deputy Director – Amina Yaqin
Amina Yaqin is Senior Lecturer in Urdu and Postcolonial Studies and Chair of the Centre for the Study of Pakistan at SOAS, University of London. Her publications on twentieth century Urdu literary trends include a special issue on the international Pakistani poet, Faiz Ahmad Faiz, Pakistaniaat, 2013.She is co-author (with Peter Morey) of Framing Muslims: stereotyping and representation after 9/11 (Harvard University Press, 2011) and co-editor of Culture, Diaspora and Modernity in Muslim Writing (Routledge, 2012). Her articles have appeared in peer-reviewed journals such as Interventions, Comparative Critical Studies, Fashion Theoryand Journal of Women’s History.She has been Co-Director of the AHRC funded International Research Network Framing Muslims from 2007-2010.She is working on her next book Twentieth Century Women’s Poetry from the Pakistan: feminist resistance and gendered subjectivities.
Project Partner– Rula Al-Abdulrazak
Rula Al-Abdulrazak is Branding and Global Marketing Specialist with 20 years of diverse experience in oil industry, business consultancy, and higher education. She researches in branding, nation/place marketing, cross-cultural and Islamic marketing. Rula was trained as an accountant with a BSc in Economics and Management, Accounting Major and a Postgraduate Diploma in Finance Management at Damascus University, from which she also received a postgraduate Diploma in Psychology and Education. At Royal Holloway, University of London, Rula completed an MBA in International Management and Marketing, and her PhD is on ‘Branded Nation: a comparative review in the Middle East’. She is a fellow of the Institute of Place Management (FIPM). Her studies included an examination of cultural diplomacy and art with reference to the United Arab Emirates, Arab Spring and nation image, nation-brand state and public diplomacy, and recently she is investigating the creation of trust and branding in Islamic contexts.
For more information you may visit:
https://www.linkedin.com/pub/rula-al-abdulrazak/13/a00/83a Or email Rula at: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Project Partner – Geeta Patel
Geeta Patel was trained as a scientist with a B.Sc. in Zoology and Botany from Delhi and a B.A. in Chemistry from Wellesley College, from which she also received a B.A. in Philosophy. Her Ph.D. from Columbia University was in interdisciplinary South Asian Studies. She has written widely on topics ranging from poetry and film to risk, history of science, finance and insurance, visual aesthetics, intellectual history; she is currently writing a series of articles on modernist Urdu poetry for the Pakistani newspaper Dawn and has translated poetry and prose from several South Asian Languages. Her book on the Urdu poet Miraji (1912-1949), Lyrical Movements, Historical Hauntings, was published by Stanford University Press and Manohar. Techno-Intimacy, on sexuality, science, finance and cultural studies is forthcoming from Women Unlimited (Delhi), and she is completing manuscripts on pensions and insurance, on advertising, and on the Urdu fiction writer Ismat Chughtai.
Email Geeta at: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Research Associate – Asmaa Soliman
Asmaa Soliman, from Aachen, Germany, is a research associate at Muslims, Trust and Cultural Dialogue in London. She has previously worked for several media companies and research projects in Germany, Egypt and the UK, mostly in relation to religion, Islam and intercultural dialogue. She received her BA in Arts & Culture from Maastricht University, her first MA in Media Culture and her second MA in International Politics from City University London. In 2011 she joined the University College London’s Centre for Multidisciplinary and Intercultural Inquiry where she is finalising her PHD. Her research topic is on Muslim youth culture in Germany. She has written several articles about Muslims in Europe. She is involved in many NGOs including UPF (Universal Peace Federation), St Ethelburga’s Centre for Reconciliation and Peace, SOLIYA and UNAOC (United Nations Alliance of Civilisations).
Field Team Member – Alaya Forte
Alaya Forte, from Italy, is a PhD candidate at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, where she is researching narratives of gender, difference and representation among political women of Muslim origin, specifically in Britain and France. She has a BA in Arabic and Islamic Studies from the University of Exeter (UK), a Licence in Politics from France (University of Nice) and a MA in Gender Studies from SOAS. She has also lived and studied in Syria for a year and has travelled extensively across the Middle East. She is thrilled to be a part of this project and be able to contribute towards a greater, and much needed, understanding of Islam in Europe.
