Promoting Academic Scholarship

Masters Student Study Visits

In January 2020; February 2019 and February 2015, CISOQ convened 3 research study visits, each hosting 4-5 Masters students from the CIS to the Middle East Centre. Students work on their Masters research and theses during their stay. They join our student seminars, attend classes and lectures, meet for one-to-one tutorials with their designated Oxford supervisor and present their own Masters research to students of the Middle East Centre’s graduate taught courses. Students have opportunities to meet with other Oxford academics, guest speakers to Oxford and the wider Oxford community. These study visits are currently on hold in lieu of the COVID pandemic and the associated uncertainty regarding travel. 

 

Weekend Residentials

In February 2017 CISOQ helped to facilitate a highly successful weekend residential course “An Introduction to Islamic Ethics”, hosted by the University of Oxford’s Department for Continuing Education. Fifty students from various backgrounds and regions of the UK participated. Shaykh Sharif H. Banna, Director of the Islamic Institute for Development & Research (IIDR) was the guest course tutor.

 

Teaching Visits

In April 2015 CISOQ coordinated a teaching visit for academics of the Middle East Centre to the College of Islamic Studies (CIS), part of Hamad bin Khalifa University (HBKU), Doha, Qatar as part of their Spring semester. The academics met with CIS students and staff, combining guest seminars with public lectures and individual tutorials with CIS Masters students.

 

Masters Course Development

CISOQ has also facilitated the development of course modules prepared by academics of the Middle East Centre and the Faculty of Oriental Studies for one of the CIS’s Masters of Arts courses on contemporary Islamic thought and societies.