Neil Russell
Thesis title: "Bringing the State Back In? Private Islamic Institutions and the Expansion of the State's Religious Bureaucracy in Sisi's Egypt"
PhD, Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies
Year of study: 3
- School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures
Contact details
- Email: s1058823@sms.ed.ac.uk
PhD supervisor:
Background
I am a third-year PhD student in the Department of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies, under the supervision of Dr. Thomas Pierret and Dr. Ewan Stein. My disciplinary background is in Comparative Politics/Political Sociology, having completed graduate work at the New School for Social Research in New York and at the University of Oxford in the UK. I came to Edinburgh in 2013 to do a masters in Arabic language with 2+3 funding from the Economic and Social Research Council, and began my doctorate in 2015.
Qualifications
MSc., Arab World Studies, University of Edinburgh (2013 - 2015)
MSc., Politics Research, University of Oxford (2011 - 2012)
Undergraduate teaching
2016-2017
Undergraduate Tutor, Department of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies, the University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK.
Courses:
- Modern Middle Eastern History B: Post War Independence and Conflict.
Postgraduate teaching
2017-2018
Teaching Assistant, Department of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies, the University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK.
Courses:
- The Syrian War and the Strategic Meltdown of the Middle East
Research summary
My PhD thesis looks at the political role of Islamic charities in Egypt who provide social services, and how they have been targeted as part of the crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood since 2013, whereby the state under Sisi has moved to extend its religious bureaucracy in order to reduce the influence of these groups in Egyptian society.