Faculty of Oriental Studies

The Faculty of Oriental Studies (formerly the Oriental Institute), is the University of Oxford's department of Asian and Middle East Studies.

The Faculty of Oriental Studies building on Pusey Lane, Oxford. The rotunda of the Sackler Library can be seen in the background.

The department is engaged in a broad range of research and teaching on modern and historical Asian and Middle Eastern studies, focusing on politics, language, and culture. The faculty's main building is located on Pusey Lane near the Ashmolean Museum and Sackler Library, with some research centres of the faculty having their own buildings elsewhere in Oxford (such as the Middle East Centre based at St. Antony's College, Oxford). The department is part of the Humanities Division at the University of Oxford. The Faculty of Oriental Studies has its own library for students and professors, which is both a lending library and a reading room of the Bodleian Library.

Sub-faculties

The faculty is divided into three sub-faculties based on subject area, including:

• Sub-Faculty of Middle Eastern Studies, which covers
  • Department of the Islamic World
  • Department of Modern Middle Eastern Studies
  • Department of Hebrew and Jewish Studies (also based at the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies)
  • Department of Egyptology and Ancient Near Eastern Studies (also based at the Griffith Institute)

• Sub-Faculty of South and Inner Asian Studies, which covers
  • Hindi and Urdu politics, language, and culture
  • Sanskrit (classical and Vedic)
  • Tibetan and Himalayan Cultural Studies

• Sub-Faculty of East Asian Studies (also based at the Eastern Art Department of the Ashmolean Museum), which covers
  • Chinese (based at the University of Oxford China Centre, Canterbury Road)
  • Japanese (also based at the Nissan Institute of Japanese Studies, Winchester Road )
  • Korean, politics, and culture

Notable people

Statutory professorships:

• Regius Professor of Hebrew – currently Jan Joosten
• Laudian Professor of Arabic – currently Julia Bray
• Professor of Egyptology – currently Richard B. Parkinson
• Boden Professor of Sanskrit – currently Christopher Minkowski
• Calouste Gulbenkian Professor of Armenian Studies – currently Theo Maarten van Lint[1]
• Spalding Professor of Eastern Religion and Ethics – currently Diwakar Acharya
• I.M. Pei Professor of Islamic Art and Architecture – currently Alain Fouad George[2]
• Stanley Ho Professor of Chinese History – currently Henrietta Harrison
• Soudavar Professor of Persian Studies – currently Edmund Herzig
• Yehan Numata Professor of Buddhist Studies – currently Stefano Zacchetti[3]
• Khalid bin Abdullah Al Saud Professor for the Study of the Contemporary Arab World – currently Marilyn Booth
• HH Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani Professor of Contemporary Islamic Studies – currently Tariq Ramadan

Other notable current academics:

• Martin Goodman
• Christopher Melchert
• Judith Olszowy-Schlanger
• Eugene Rogan

References

1. "Theo Maarten van Lint". Faculty of Oriental Studies. University of Oxford. Retrieved 28 November 2018.
2. "Alain Fouad George". Faculty of Oriental Studies. University of Oxford. Retrieved 28 November 2018.
3. "Professor Stefano Zacchetti". Balliol College. University of Oxford. Retrieved 28 November 2018.

External links

• Official website of the Faculty of Oriental Studies
• Official website of the Oriental Institute Library
• Griffith Institute, Ashmolean Museum
• Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies
• Khalili Research Centre for Art and the Material Culture of the Middle East
• Eastern Art Department, Ashmolean Museum
• Nissan Institute of Japanese Studies