Elvire Corboz

Lecturer in Contemporary Islam and Middle East

Biography

Background

Dr Elvire Corboz  joined IMES as lecturer in Contemporary Islam and Middle East in 2018. She first studied Arabic and Islamic Studies (along with her other major in musicology) in Switzerland at the University of Geneva. She then earned an MPhil in modern Middle Eastern Studies, followed by a DPhil in Oriental Studies, both from the University of Oxford. Before coming to Edinburgh, she worked as postdoctoral research associate and lecturer at Princeton University (2011-2013), lecturer at Rutgers University (2013-2014), and assistant professor at Aarhus University (2014-2018).  

Qualifications

DPhil in Oriental Studies, University of Oxford (2010)

MPhil in Modern Middle Eastern Studies, University of Oxford (2005)

Licence ès Lettres in Musicology and in Arabic and Islamic Studies, University of Geneva, Switzerland (2003)

Responsibilities & affiliations

Lecturer, Department of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies

Learning and Teaching director, Department of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies

Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Centre for the Study of Islam in the Contemporary World, former deputy director (2019-2022)

Undergraduate teaching

  • Modern Middle Eastern History B: Postwar Independence and Conflict (Sub-Honours) (course organiser)
  • Islamic Movements in the 20th-21st Century (Honours) (course organiser)
  • Iraq: From "Republic of Fear" to the Islamic State (Honours) (course organiser)
  • History and Culture of Iran (Honours) (team taught)

Guest lecturer

  • Modern Middle Eastern History A: Domestic Transformation and International Challenges (Sub-Honours) 
  • Introduction to Islam (Sub-Honours)

Postgraduate teaching

  • Ideology and Political Practice in the Modern Middle East (course organiser)
  • Critical Readings in Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies (course organiser; team taught)
  • Research Methods and Problems in Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies (team taught)
  • History and Culture of Iran (PG version) (team taught)
  • Iraq: From "Republic of Fear" to the Islamic State (PG version) (course organiser)
  • Islamic Movements in the 20th Century (PG version) (course organiser)

Guest lecturer

  • Regional Perspectives in a Globalised Muslim World

Open to PhD supervision enquiries?

Yes

Areas of interest for supervision

I welcome enquiries in the following areas of research: modern Shi‘ism; modern Iraqi history and politics; modern Iranian history and politics; Sunni-Shi‘i relations; Shi‘i Islamism; Shi‘ism in Europe; Muslim religious authority.

Current PhD students supervised

Principal supervisor:

Carlos Mendez, IMES PhD. Working title: To Reveal (Love) and Conceal (Hate) in Digital Shi‘i Islam: A multifaceted approach to the emergence of the Rafidi phenomenon in the ‘Digital Age’

Robert Riggs, IMES PhD. Working title: Tracing the Marja‘iyah: A Latourian approach to understanding the formation and function of Sistani and Fadlallah’s religious authority actor-networks

Konstantin Rintelmann, IMES PhD. Working title: Iraq’s Protest Movement and Bottom-Up De-Sectarianization: Dynamics of identity, activism, and the rejection of sect-centricity

Assistant supervisor:

Bahar Fayeghi, IMES PhD. Working title: Everyday Resistance of Afghan Refugee Women in Iran

Sinan Siyesh, IMES PhD. Topic: Salafism in India 

Asif Khanan, IMES PhD.

 

Research summary

Dr Corboz's research interests are in contemporary Shi‘ism, with a particular focus on the Shi‘i clerical establishment and its transnational networks, Iraqi Shi‘i Islamism, as well as Shi‘i communities and institutions in the United Kingdom.  She is also interested in the study of Sunni-Shi'i relations, especially in European contexts.

 

Dr Corboz has been involved in the following collaborative projects:

2018: Lead applicant in the project ‘Sunni-Shi‘i Relations in Europe’, funded under the workshop grant scheme by the Joint Committee for Nordic Research Councils in the Humanities and Social Sciences (NOS-HS).

2015–2018: Affiliated researcher in the project ‘SWAR: Sectarianism in the Wake of the Arab Revolts’, funded by the Danish Council for Independent Research – Social Sciences (FSE).

2012–2013: Core group member in the project ‘Traditional Authority and Transnational Religious Networks in Contemporary Shi‘i Islam: Results from Recent Empirical Research’, Oxford-Princeton Collaborative Grant.

Past project grants

2018 ‘Sunni-Shi‘i Relations in Europe’, funded under the workshop grant scheme by the Joint Committee for Nordic Research Councils in the Humanities and Social Sciences (NOS-HS).

View all 20 publications on Research Explorer

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