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After the ceremony Yash Chopra joined us for a special alumni question and answer session. The evening was attended by over 200 people and held in the SOAS Brunei Lecture Hall. Images from the event can be seen here.

There was a great deal of public interest in the appearance of Bollywood director and producer Yash Chopra, who was awarded an honorary doctorate on Friday, 23 July.

"I am humbled by this honour and would like to thank SOAS for this recognition," said Chopra, 77, on receiving his honorary degree. "My filmmaking has always been from the heart and I would like to pass on this same message to students all over the world."

That evening, Chopra participated in a question-and-answer session at the School's Brunei Lecture Theatre. The event was chaired by Professor Rachel Dwyer, Professor of Indian Cultures and Cinema at SOAS and a biographer of Chopra.

The audience included SOAS students of Indian film, VIPs, media and Bollywood fans. SOAS was one of the first higher education institutions to offer a degree course on popular Hindi cinema.

It soon became clear just how strong an impression Chopra's work has made on Indian popular culture over a career that spans more than five decades. At one point, someone from the audience asked Chopra about the song Rang Barse, from Chopra's classic 1981 romance, Silsila. When Chopra had trouble recalling the song, a celebration of the Indian festival of Holi, the audience spontaneously broke into a group rendition. They remembered every word.

During his visit Yash Chopra, also recorded a podcast with SOAS’ Openair Radio. This interview will be printed in October’s edition of SOAS World Magazine. To make sure you receive the forthcoming edition, please ensure that we have your up-to-date postal address. Click here to update your details.

August

Graduation 2010, which was held on 21-23 July, was the largest in the history of the School.

A total of 852 undergraduate and graduate students were awarded degrees, cheered on by 1,441 friends and family members, over the course of the three days.

This year’s ceremonies included the usual mix of live music, inspirational speeches and a Champaign reception.

The alumni team were in attendance, welcoming the Class of 2010 to the network with free ice-cream and, for the first time, a free photo booth, to view all the fun images click here.

A particular highlight was the class of 2010 celebratory film, which was shown
during the ceremony.  The film, produced
by a former SOAS student, can be watched here.

SOAS also honoured the achievements of five leading figures in international diplomacy and the arts.

The Nigerian novelist Ben Okri OBE was awarded an honorary doctorate at a graduation ceremony for undergraduates, held on Wednesday, 21 July.

"The fame of SOAS has spread all over the world," he said upon receiving the award." There isn't one part of the world that hasn't heard of SOAS, perhaps because all of the world is here."

SOAS alumna HRH Princess Wijdan bint Fawaz Al-Hashemi, the Jordanian ambassador to Italy, was awarded an honorary fellowship on the same afternoon.

Jonathan Taylor CBE, chairman of the Booker Prize Foundation and a former chairman of the SOAS Governing Body, receive an honorary fellowship on Thursday, 22 July, along with Shiv Shankar Mukherjee, former Indian high commissioner to the United Kingdom.

There was a great deal of public interest in the appearance of Bollywood director and producer Yash Chopra, who was awarded an honorary doctorate on Friday, 23 July.

August

A third year Chinese and Law undergraduate at SOAS has won first prize at the ninth Chinese Bridge competition, a prestigious contest in Chinese language and culture proficiency for non-native speakers.

Stewart Johnson competed against 106 other university students selected from 59 countries. He survived numerous rounds over several months to make it to the final, held on 8 August in Changsha,  the capital city of Hunan province in the People's Republic of China. The final was shown live on Chinese state television, and watched by an audience estimated at 200 million people.

"It has been an extraordinary adventure, and I am still very much trying to process everything that has happened," said Johnson, reached in Beijing. "I had no concept of the scale of this competition before coming to China this summer, and even less expectation of getting so far."

Each year, more than 6,000 contestants enter the Chinese Bridge competition. During the early rounds, held in the spring, competitors must deliver a speech in Chinese, answer questions about Chinese culture and demonstrate a talent associated with China, such as storytelling, calligraphy, martial arts, singing, dancing or playing a musical instrument. In the final three rounds, contestants are given a theme and must build a performance around that theme through skits, plays and debates, with help from a 'celebrity supporting act'. In Johnson's case, he performed with Zhou Weixing, a famous comedian from Hunan province.

"As one of Stewart's teachers, I am really proud of him," said Zhaoxia Pang, lector in Chinese at SOAS. "The Chinese Bridge competition is recognised as the most challenging competition in the world for university students to demonstrate their Chinese language proficiency, their understanding of Chinese culture and their talent-based performance."

In winning the competition, Johnson was also awarded a full three-year scholarship to study at a Chinese university and received the title of 'cultural ambassador'.

"I have always very proudly told my peers in China and beyond that I study Chinese at SOAS, and feel privileged to have had the opportunity to develop under the tutelage of such a strong team of teachers as we enjoy here," said Johnson. "This year we had all three UK representatives in the last 30 of the competition, something that has never happened before, and something that shows good signs for the future of studying Chinese in the UK."

He said he not yet decided how to use his three-year scholarship, but he was considering many possibilities.

"I have actually been developing an interest in South Asia at SOAS and am keen to learn Hindi," he said. "I have considered enrolling in a Hindi degree at Peking University."

August 2010

The World Routes Academy, which was launched earlier this year, is a mentoring scheme with a special emphasis on musical traditions from around the world. Khyam’s first appearance on the programe was broadcast on 27 March 2010, further programmes were recorded in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and the UK. The culmination of this process witnessed Khyam Allami perform in a showcase concert as part of the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall in London.

The SOAS music department describe Khyam as an outstanding young player of the 'Ud (Middle Eastern Lute) and budding scholar of Middle Eastern music.

August 2010

The Alumni and Friends Fund Panel met at the end of July to disseminate the £46,000 raised so far in 2010. Alumni contributions have been exceptionally generous and we want you to know how your gifts will be put to good use. The beneficiaries are:

• SOAS Hardship Fund, which offers grants to EU and international students, both undergraduate and postgraduate.

• The Alumni & Friends Fund Library Acquisitions and Preservation Fund, which will support conservation work and provide funds for the purchase of early or rare books, manuscripts and archive materials.

• Local Excellence Awards. These will offer maintenance support  for 10 new undergraduates with financial need who evidence outstanding academic merit and personal achievement in their community in London.  Support lasts for up to three years. The Alumni and Friends Fund aims to support 10 more students in 2011.

• The Refugee Academic Grant, which will allow SOAS to host a refugee or at-risk academic.  This project will operate in conjunction with the Council for Assisting Refugee Academics (CARA).
  
  
• Student Projects. The AFF received 13 applications and made seven awards:
  

• SOAS Beyond Borders: West Africa.  In September, 16 SOAS students and alumni, most of them from the SOAS football team, will work on grassroots development projects in Ghana and Nigeria.  Activities will include helping to build a community school and volunteering at an orphanage. The group will also play football matches against local semi-professional sides.

• SOAS IV: Debating Tournament will be the largest debating tournament in Britain. This year's tournament will also include an English as a Second Language grand final. In 2009, the SOAS Debating tournament was attended by 100 teams representing nine countries.
  

• Common Ground is a community garden in Kings Cross established in 2009 by members of the Good Food Society at SOAS.

• Zipangu Fest will be London's first Japanese cinema festival. The screenings will be a mix of mainstream movies, independent cinema and retrospectives, supplemented by Q&A sessions,  talks and panel discussions. Films will be shown from 23 to 28 November 2010 at venues across London’s East End and at SOAS.
  

• SOAS Detainee Support Group training and awareness day aims to provide at least 30 SOAS students with the skills to visit and support women, children and families held in immigration removal centres in the UK. The group also hopes to raise awareness about the issues facing refugees and asylum seekers attempting to navigate the British immigration system.

• London and Bamako exhibition is a photography exhibition supported by narrations, film footage and PC webcams. Two identical site-specific exhibitions will be displayed simultaneously in March 2011 in museum galleries in London and in Bamako, Mali. 
  
  

•  Dance Jam seeks to bring together gifted inner city school students, SOAS volunteers and a trained dance teacher who all share a passion for dance. The project will culminate in innovative dance performances held at SOAS and Petchey Academy in Hackney.

Organisers of the student projects were ecstatic about the awards. The response of Becca Temple, project leader for Common Ground and an Anthropology student at SOAS, was typical.

"We are over the moon about this funding," she said. "It has arrived right on time, as we have finally finished building our shed to store the new tools we will buy. There’ll be no more fumbling to find someone a pair of gloves. The funding will allow us much better facilities for the seasonal workshops on everything from seed sowing and growing to pot-painting and jam making, which are open to SOAS students and local residents."

Without your gifts many of these projects would not have been made possible, so thank you again for your support! If you have any further questions about the Alumni & Friends Fund, please contact Anastasia Connor, Development Officer (Annual Fund and Legacies), email: a.connor@soas.ac.uk, tel: 020 7898 4062.

To make a contribution to future Alumni & Friends Fund projects, please go to http://www.soasalumni.org/makeadifference

 August 2010

Charlie Henniker (MA South Asian Area Studies 2009) responsible for the viral sketch hit ‘Gap Yah’ and ‘Gap Yah 2’, will be performing in London this month.

Charlie is a member of the comedy sketch group ‘Unexpected Items’. The group shot to fame in part thanks to their YouTube hits (featured in this article), the second of which was filmed outside SOAS.

The Unexpected Items will be performing in the Leicester Square Theatre 3 July 2010. Charlie's London gig is sandwiched between a recent performance at the Glastonbury Festival and an imminent début at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
 
For more information about the show please see the theatre webpage here.

 June 2010

Burmese human rights activist Aung San Suu Kyi turned 65 this June. Aung San Suu Kyi is the leader of the Burmese National League for Democracy, and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991. She studied at SOAS in 1988 and later become an honorary fellow.

Aung San Suu Kyi spent her birthday under house arrest in Rangoon. To mark her birthday the Guardian published previously unpublished photographs taken from the private collection of her late husband Michael Aris. To view these remarkable photos click here.

June 2010

 June 2010

This month marked 30 years since the assassination in Guyana of Dr Walter Rodney (PhD History 1966), prominent historian and political activist. Rodney studied for an MA and PhD here at SOAS. His PhD dissertation, entitled ‘A History of the Upper Guinea Coast, 1545-1800’, was widely acclaimed for its originality in challenging the conventional wisdom on the area.

After leaving SOAS Walter Rodney became an important figure of the Black Power movement in the Caribbean and North America. In 1974 Rodney returned to Guyana from Tanzania. He was supposed to take a position as a professor at the University of Guyana but the government prevented his appointment. He became increasingly active in politics, forming the Working People’s Alliance against the PNC government. In 1980, Rodney was killed by a bomb in his car while running for office in Guyanese elections. 

June 2010

SOAS’ professor of International Relations Stephen Chan OBE gives OpenAir Radio his predictions for the world cup and the future of South African Politics.

Stephen Chan was recently awarded his OBE for ‘services to Africa and to higher education' in the 2010 Queen’s Birthday Honour list. To read the full article click here.

June 2010

Anjalika Sagar (BA Social Anthropology 1998) writer, curator & co-founder of the The Otolith Group has been shortlisted for the 2010 Turner Prize, the UK’s most famous art award

The Otolith Group’s work aims to tackle broad themes such as science fiction, feminism, post-colonial discourse and the space race. They have been shortlisted for a their project titled ‘A Long Time Between Suns’.

The Scotsman recently published an article with information about all of this years nominees. Click here to read more.


May 2010

Bobby Syed (MA South Asian Studies 1990), founder of EMMA (the Ethnic Multicultural Media Campaign), was at the forefront of a citizen campaign to highlight their fears that the far right is growing in influence in the UK.

Ahead of the May UK elections, the group, beamed the picture of red and white swastika onto the Houses of Parliament alongside the phrase: "Decision Time. Keep the far-right out." The campaign also includes viral videos that can be seen here.

"The rationale behind this projection is to protect this iconic building that is the bastion of our democratic values around the world against the invasion of the far-right," said Bobby. "This is to reflect the need for us all in our civic duty to tackle the growing far right threat.”

To read more, visit www.emmatrust.com

May 2010

The School was saddened to learn of the death of Professor D.C. Lau, who passed away on 26 April 2010 in Hong Kong. 

'Professor D C Lau, "Lau" as he was known to most of us. He started teaching at SOAS in 1950 and was Professor of Chinese from 1970 to 1978. He then moved to the Chinese University of Hong Kong, where he remained until his death at the age of 89. His accessible and scholarly Penguin Books translations of the Analects, the Mencius, and the Tao Te Ching (Dao De Jing) have been in print for many years, and will be known to a much wider audience than those he taught, but his students and colleagues will remember him primarily as a quiet, hugely knowledgeable, always helpful pillar of the Chinese Section, a stimulating teacher with a rapier wit which he employed to tease and enlighten but never to humiliate.'

Hugh Baker, Professor Emeritus of Chinese at SOAS, was asked to speak at a memorial event in Lau's honour held in China this month. To supplement his speach Hugh approached alumni asking them for memories of Professor Lau's three decades at SOAS.

In lieu of flowers, please make donations to the Professor D C Lau Memorial Scholarship Fund c/o the Department of Chinese Language and Literature of The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, New Territories, Hong Kong in memory of Professor Lau. Cheques should be crossed and made payable to “The Chinese University of Hong Kong”. All enquiries should be directed to the Department of Chinese Language and Literature at +582-2609-7071.

May 2010

Last month nearly 200 students put on their headphones, tuned into the same song and enjoyed a silent disco in the SOAS library.

Unbeknown to library staff, students successfully organised an unusual brake from their revisions schedules and started to dance together on the floors of the library.

The event was filmed by spectators on their mobile phones. The footage has since been edited and uploaded onto YouTube by a group called SOASFilmmakers, you can watch their video here…

April 2010

SOAS Director and Principal Professor Paul Webley has spoken to The Independent about life at SOAS and the path ahead.

The interview, printed on the 25 March 2010, addressed a range of topics including student diversity, protests, league tables, alumni relations and 'making a difference'. To read the full article click here...

Paul Webley has recently been appointed deputy vice-chancellor of the University of London. To read more click here...

April 2010

A SOAS team has launched a four-year research project on fair trade in Africa, with support from the UK Department for International Development (DFID).
The project, Fair Trade, Employment and Poverty Reduction in Ethiopia and Uganda, has received approximately £600,000 in funding from DFID's Trade Policy Unit.

The team comprises Professor Christopher Cramer and Senior Lecturer Carlos Oya from the Department of Development Studies, Senior Lecturer Deborah Johnston from the Department of Economics, Professor Emeritus John Sender of the Department of Economics and Bernd Mueller, the project's research officer.

"The research aims to improve our knowledge of the transmission mechanism linking trade in agricultural commodities with poverty reduction, especially via labour markets," said Cramer. "And it pays particular attention to the various institutional arrangements, codes of practice and so on, including Fair Trade and other certification schemes, that have been developed with the intention of helping to improve poor people's welfare and to protect them against the vagaries of international commodity markets."

The team is conducting surveys in a range of sites, particularly those in coffee-producing and flower-growing regions. The team began their first survey in Ethiopia in March. The surveys will be followed by interviews and the collection of life histories from individuals.

April 2010

Professor Graham Furniss, Pro-Director for Research and Enterprise, recently spoke at an event to celebrate the success of the Newton International Fellowship Scheme.

The Newton Fellowship is designed to attract the world’s best postdoctoral researchers to the UK. SOAS is very proud to currently host two Newton Fellows, Peter Sells (Professor of Linguistics) and Laixiang Sun (Professor of Chinese Business and Management).

April 2010

Professor George Wajackoyah, a former Law student (1997) of the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, visited the School on 26 March 2010. George reconnected with his alma matter, meeting with Craig Pollard, Head of Development & Alumni Relations, and Zeba Salman, Alumni Relations Manager. He also visited the Directorate Office and the School of Law, reminiscing over his student memories with former professors. George was an active student during his time at SOAS, involved in Kenyan-student politics; amongst his many activities, he invited prominent Kenyan politicians to the School, including Dr Richard Leakey, Koigi Wa Wamwere and the Honourable Dennis Akumu.

Professor Wajackoyah is currently running for the Kenyan presidency in 2012, and is leading the ‘Shake the Tree Movement’ of Kenya. George is heading a strong promotional campaign in the international community, particularly through social online networks. As part of this campaign, SOAS is currently working towards plans to host George for a guest lecture event in the near-future. George is an esteemed member of the SOAS alumni community and the Royal African Society.

For more information on George’s campaign, please visit www.glw4president.com.

April 2010

On Monday 12th April a team of 30 SOAS students started calling our alumni seeking support for the Alumni & Friends Fund projects, updating alumni details and informing people of our activities.

A week into our campaign, we’ve spoken to nearly 300 people, nearly 14% of whom have offered financial support and further 16% pledging or considering making a gift.

In addition to your generous gifts, we’ve been finding out a great deal about what our alumni are doing and where they are in the world. Alumni have been offering their support through career mentoring, voluntary placement and excellent feedback on our new re-branded magazine, SOAS World. Students have been receiving career advice, learning about alumni work overseas and making new friends with alumni and fellow callers.

Big thank you to everyone who’s spoken to us and pledged their support so far! Our campaign will run until 9th May and we are hoping to hear many more stories and receive more support towards our special funding projects. If you wish to join our campaign by donating online, further information about the Alumni & Friends Fund can be found here.
 
And here is a little more information about our wonderful team of student callers….

Adele Newman
(BA History and South Asian Studies)

Andrea Glioti
(MA Near and Middle Eastern Studies)

Asma Rafiq
(BA Development Studies and Study of Religions)






Benjamin Coleman
(BA History)

Fatima Ahmed
(MSc Violence, Conflict, Development) 






Francesca Vitagliano
(MSc International Management)

Ingrida Kerusaukaite

Joanne Marie Hooper

Kathryn Mecrow

Krzysztof Kardaszewicz

Yahia Abaza
(BSc Economics)








Yamuna Malini Soto
(MA Study of Religion)


April 2010

The students' union is looking to put together an image bank illustrating SOAS’ colourful history. We were inspired when going through our old files looking at handbooks and pictures from the 70's 80's and 90's. For example, we found this picture of students with presumably an early SOAS banner. Are you one of the people on this march? Could you tell us what the demo was for (and if it won).
We're sure some of you out there have pictures of similar, or previous fresher's events, SOAS parties or an end of year ball, demonstrations and protests, hanging out on the SOAS steps/ Senate House grass etc.

Here is our appeal. Please go through the bottom of your drawers, and old files for any SOAS-based photos you might have forgotten about. If you have any photos that you would like to donate the use of to the students' union, please send them in. Please tell us what you can of the occasion - whatever detail you are happy to have included. We cannot make any payment, but we will send the originals back to you once we have scanned the pictures.

Please only send photos which are your own (i.e. you have the rights or permission to share). By sending any photo's you agree that the SOAS Students' Union can use them, without time limit, in our publicity and promoting of SOAS Students' Union.

Examples of how we might use the images would be: As a collage in the Handbook, on the Union website, e.g. as part of a history of the SOAS SU. As a display in the Students' Union after the new refurbishment.
 
Please send all images to, remember to include a return address:

Image bank appeal
SOAS Students’ Union
Thornhaugh Street
London WC1H 0XG


Many thanks in advance!


April 2010

For the last 11 weeks Ankur Bahl (Migration and Diaspora Studies 2006) has been a judge on a children’s BBC programme called ‘Jump Nation’, a skipping competition in which teams compete for the title of Britain’s best jump rope team.

Ankur grew up in Santa Clara, California, studying the Indian dance form of Bharatanatyam. He went on to study ballet and modern dance in France and later became a member the U.S. national Jump Rope Team, becoming three-time national champion and World Jump Rope Champion.

Ankur got the chance to study at SOAS after being awarded a Marshall Scholarship.

Should you wish to support a scholarship at SOAS please contact João Silva at: js75@soas.ac.uk

For more information about this story please visit: http://www.marshallscholarship.org/scholars/ankurbahl 

March 2010

Dawud Izza is a second-year undergraduate student reading Arabic & Development Studies. Alongside his full-time study, he spends his time mastering his techniques in Taekwondo, a sport he has been practising for the last 15 years. He recently took part in the British Taekwondo National Championships 2010 and after winning four fights, he was awarded the title for the Senior Male - 63kg category.

With 15 years experience under his belt Dawud is used to balancing his athletic prowess with his academic responsibilities and he often finds that training leaves him feeling refreshed and ready to study. Nevertheless he acknowledges that balancing his commitments it can be difficult at times, especially when exams and course work deadlines pile up.

Winning this national title has been Dawud’s best achievement in the sport so far, however he has no intention of resting on his laurels and he is already training hard for 11th World University Taekwondo Championship taking place in Spain this coming summer. We wish him well and will keep you up-to-date with his future achievements.

March 2010

Iranian film-maker Rakhshan Bani-Etemad (SOAS Honorand) is serving on the international jury of the 2010 Fribourg International Film Festival. The film festival, held in Switzerland, started on March 13 and will continue until March 20.

Rakhshan is an award-winning documentary and film maker is widely considered to be one of Iran’s finest directors. Her notable films include: Mainline (2006), Galaneh (2005), Under the Skin of the City (2000), The Blue Veiled (1994), Nargess (1991) and Off the Limits (1987).

Rakhashan has won a host of international awards for her films. She also received an Honorary Degree from SOAS in 2008 for her contribution to World Cinema and the Iranian culture and society.

March 2010

SOAS alumnus Danny Choo, a Tokyo-based computer programmer, entrepreneur and son of fashion designer Jimmy Choo, is making big strides in Japanese popular culture.

By day, Danny Choo (Japanese Studies 1998) is best known as the CEO of internet strategy firm Mirai Inc, a successful firm in the heart of Tokyo. His recent clients include Google, Disney, NHK, Mozilla, Columbia Japan, Good Smile Company, Bandai and Kotobukiya.

But Danny is just as well recognised for his activities outside of the boardroom. Choo is a self professed Otaku and an avid collector of anime figures. His recent book ‘Otacool: Worldwide Otaku Rooms’ sold 20,000 copies for its first edition.

Choo’s eccentricities extend to many areas of his life, some have dubbed him “the dancing storm trooper” because he can often be seen wondering around Tokyo clad in the white body armour of the fictional soldiers from George Lucas’ Star Wars.

Choo's sense of fun is reflected in his business philosophy and he is keen for his employees to strike a good balance between work and private time.
"Life is short," he says. "We could die any time”

To read more about Danny Choo please visit: http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20100209ww.html  

You can also read Danny’s full bio here: http://www.dannychoo.com/post/en/25018/Danny+Choo.html  

March 2010

The alumni team have joined up with SOAS’ online radio station OpenAir.fm to produce a set of Alumni Podcasts. The series will ask alumni about their career and time at SOAS. It is hoped that this fascinating series will provide current students and recent graduates with a mentoring tool, helping them to realise their ambitions and to follow in the footsteps of our diverse and interesting alumni body.

The first of our podcast features news presenter Zeinab Badawi (MA Near & Middle Eastern Studies 1989) and can be heard on the open air website, here. Zeinab talks to us about a range of subjects from her early childhood in Sudan and her family’s strong educational background; to her time at SOAS and her later life as a journalist.

Zeinab recounts her career highlights including interviewing the Dalai Lama, Arch Bishop Desmond Tutu and Bill Clinton. She also speaks of her time at SOAS, remembering it as a “cosmopolitan environment” that taught her “what it was to be a citizen of the world”.

Zeinab is sure that being at SOAS teaches you to be open minded, and that in an increasingly international world a SOAS education is “much more likely to make you successful”.

Feb 2010

Baroness Helana Kennedy is – amongst other notable achievements – an accomplished lawyer in the fields of criminal law, human rights and civil liberties. She has acted in many prominent cases of the last decades including the Brighton Bombing Trial, Guildford Four Appeal, the bombing of the Israeli Embassy, the abduction of Baby Abbie Humphries and a number of key domestic violence cases.

Feb 2010

Dr. Hassan Hakimian, the new director of the London Middle East Institute (LMEI) at SOAS, attended an alumni reception in Dubai this month.

The event was attended by 35 alumni and proved to be a great opportunity for alumni to network and reminisce over their SOAS experiences.

Hassan believed that the event was a “fantastic reminder of the power of networking and the potential possibilities for collaboration and synergism that we can create collectively”.

It is hoped that this and future events will help to grow and expand the LMEI and its profile, enabling SOAS to continue its rich development and allow it to make its mark not only in the UK and the West generally but particularly in the Middle East.

To read more about Dr. Hassan Hakimian and the London Middle East Institute at SOAS, please click here.

Feb 2010

The School was saddened to learn about the death of Frederick Wooldridge, a 1997 SOAS graduate. He was the first Briton confirmed killed in the Haiti earthquake tragedy.

Wooldridge, who was from Kent, was a political affairs and planning officer at the United Nations. Our thoughts are with his family and friends at this difficult time.

Please see the following stories for further news:

BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8463932.stm

Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/17/un-briton-dead-haiti-wooldridge

Jan 2010

In the last week of term, SOAS was treated to a steady dusting of snow. This being London, it will probably go down in the record books as the Great Blizzard of 2009.

Big snowflakes cascaded down, for a couple of hours, much to the delight of students and staff. The snow melted quickly, but for a moment everyone was transformed into a giggling little child!

December 2009 

We'd like our alumni to be among the first to know that SOAS has been awarded the prestigious Queen's Anniversary Prize for Higher Education. Officially announced last night at a special reception at St James's Palace, the award honours the Faculty of Languages and Cultures for the excellence, breadth and depth of its teaching in the languages of Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

The Queen's Anniversary Prizes for Higher Education reward "outstanding achievement and excellence in UK universities and colleges." They are much coveted, particularly since they are rarely given. There have only been eight rounds of awards since the prizes were founded in 1994. About 20 prizes are given in each round.

Winning a single Queen's Anniversary Prize is considered a great achievement for a higher-education institution, and SOAS has now won two.

"This is a great honour for SOAS," said Paul Webley, the School's Director and Principal. "The Queen's Anniversary Prizes go only to higher-education institutions doing world-class work of exceptional importance. SOAS's award is a testament to the outstanding quality of our teaching in the languages and cultures of Africa, Asia and the Middle East."

Her Majesty the Queen will present SOAS's award to Professor Webley; Professor Michael J. Hutt, Dean of the School's Faculty of Languages and Cultures; and Baroness Kennedy, the President of SOAS, at a ceremony at Buckingham Palace on 19 February 2010. A number of SOAS language teachers and students will also attend the ceremony.

To read the full article, please visit http://www.soas.ac.uk/news/newsitem55170.html.

November 2009

At a time of unprecedented scientific, political and popular interest in Climate Change, you have the chance to study a new postgraduate distance learning module in Climate Change and Development that will be available to students from February 2010.

The first unit, Climate Change and Development Challenges, is now available free on the web as a taster module - view further information online.

If you are interested in further study at SOAS, this course will give you a taster of the new module. Even if you are not interested in studying further, but are nevertheless interested in an introduction to this major global issue, then this could be for you too. The whole unit can be worked through, and the key readings for this unit are also freely available on the internet.

This module is being developed and released at a time when new scientific research is constantly bringing new evidence to bear on the issue. At the same time, the outcomes of the Copenhagen conference (and of prior negotiations) will have profound and far reaching effects on the earth's climate, ecosystems and inhabitants. To enable the module to be as up to date as possible in reflecting particularly the outcomes of the COP15 meeting in Copenhagen, this module will exceptionally be shipped to students in two parts: the module textbooks and the CD and associated readings for the first five units will be shipped in time for the February start of the programme; the CD and readings for the remaining five units will be shipped to students by May.

The module may be taken as a short stand-alone module or as part of a wider MSc degree, Postgraduate diploma, or Postgraduate certificate in our Sustainable Development, Poverty Reduction, Environmental Management or other programmes.

For further information, please visit http://www.soas.ac.uk/courseunits/C124.html.

December 2009

M.K. Asante, Jr. (JYA 2003) recently received the Best Documentary prize for his film, 'the Black Candle' at the 2009 Africa World Documentary Film Festival in St. Louis, Missouri.

Narrated by Maya Angelou,The Black Candle is a landmark, award-winning documentary that uses Kwanzaa as a vehicle to explore the African-American experience. The Black Candle is an extraordinary, inspirational story about the struggle and triumph of family, community and culture. Filmed across the United States, Africa, Europe and the Caribbean, The Black Candle is more than a film about a holiday, it is a celebration of a people. To view an interview with Asante, visit the film's official website at www.theblackcandle.com.

M.K. Asante, Jr. is an award-winning author, filmmaker, and professor who thePhiladelphia Inquirer calls "a rare, remarkable talent that brings to mind the great artists of the Harlem Renaissance." Asante studied at SOAS, earned his BA from Lafayette College, and an MFA from the UCLA School of Film and Television. He is a professor of creative writing and film in the Department of English and Language Arts at Morgan State University. Read more at www.mkasante.com.

December 2009

Dr Tim Miller, Director of People, Property and Assurance at Standard Chartered Bank, has been confirmed today as the new Chair of Governing Body at SOAS. Dr Miller succeeds Lady Judge, whose four-year term of office ends 31 December 2009.

Dr Miller takes up the position on 1 January 2010 and will be responsible for leading the School’s Governing Body in setting the School’s strategic direction, supporting the Director and staff in delivering the School’s mission, ensuring the School and Governing Body operate to the highest standards and representing the School externally with key stakeholders and funders.

“We are delighted that Dr Miller has chosen to lead SOAS at such an exciting time for the School,” said Professor Michael Knibb, Vice-Chair of the SOAS Governing Body. “He has excellent and relevant leadership experience at the highest level and a deep empathy for the mission and values of the School. We are very fortunate to have found in Dr Miller a global business leader with a wealth of experience and understanding of our regions of expertise. We are genuinely excited by the opportunities and insights Dr Miller will bring to the School as it approaches its Centenary in 2016.”

Dr Miller said: “I have long been interested in SOAS and its unique focus on some of the world’s most important regions and cultures, and I admire its passion and sense of purpose. The School’s mission—of understanding and so interpreting these regions to the rest of the world—has never been more important or relevant, and strongly reflects my own interests and experience. The complex and challenging funding environment for higher education in the UK, as well as global competition and the upcoming centenary, make this a crucial time in the School’s development. I feel privileged to be asked to lead the Governing Body and to work with SOAS to build on a century of excellent scholarship to meet the needs of today’s world.”

During her four-year term as Chair of Governing Body, Lady Judge has played a major role in building the School’s network of high profile supporters, particularly in creating the impressive International Advisory Board (IAB) of leading international business, diplomatic and cultural leaders. She is to remain an important member of the School community as Chair of both the IAB and the Advisory Council of the London Middle East Institute at SOAS.

In his role at Standard Chartered Bank, Dr Miller has responsibility for the HR; Corporate Real Estate; Corporate Secretariat; Legal, Compliance and Assurance; Internal Audit and Global Research functions. Prior to joining Standard Chartered Bank, Dr Miller held a number of senior HR positions at GlaxoSmithKline. He has a bachelor's degree in history and economics, a master of letters degree and an MBA from the University of Stirling and a doctorate in business administration from Nottingham Business School.

For further information about Dr Tim Miller please go to:
www.standardchartered.com/media-centre/key-people/tim-miller/en/index.html

December 2009

The School was saddened to learn of the death of retired Professor Alexander (Sasha) Piatigorsky on 25 October 2009. Tudor Parfitt, Professor of Modern Jewish Studies at SOAS, has this tribute.

Alexander (Sasha) Piatigorsky, the Russian-Jewish philosopher, academic and writer, was born in Moscow in 1929. He worked for years at the Moscow Institute for Oriental Studies but lost his job in 1968 because of his dissident activities. He came to SOAS in 1975, was appointed to a chair in the Ancient History of South Asia in 1990 and retired in 2001.

His most acclaimed work was Symbol and Consciousness: Metaphysical Discussion of Consciousness, Symbolism and Language (Jerusalem 1982, with his friend, the philosopher Merab Mamardashvili). The book explored the theory of consciousness (the ‘meta-theory of consciousness’, as Mamardashvili put it) which combined Western and Eastern philosophical vocabulary and was a kind of philosophical conversation about consciousness between the two men, from the respective perspectives of Husserl’s phenomenology and the Buddhist school of vijnanavad . This book is regarded by many as the most complex, and by some as the most important, philosophical work produced in Russian.

For years Sasha swore he would never return to Russia. But after the fall of Communism the attitude towards him changed, and he relented. He was by then regarded as a great Russian thinker and writer. This was in part because of the two documentary films made about him and in part because of the philosophical novels he wrote, which had a cult following.

Over the last three years of his life he held a monthly seminar in London to which people would come from all over Russia, some flying in on their private jets. He visited Russia regularly and was feted wherever he went.

In the last couple of years Alexander Piatigorsky became an intellectual superstar in Russia. His advice was sought by some of the most powerful people in the country and he was regularly interviewed in national newspapers and on television and radio. During this period powerful figures in the Russian community in London, too, took him to their heart and treated him with the consideration, even adulation, he so richly deserved.

Following Sasha's death on 25 October 2009, Russian television channels announced the loss of ‘the greatest Russian philosopher’. At SOAS he will be remembered as a charismatic teacher and brilliant thinker of whom Sir Isaiah Berlin once said: "Piatigorsky quite simply is a genius!"

He leaves behind a wife, Liudmila, and five children.

SOAS plans to commemorate the life of Sasha Piatigorsky at a memorial service in 2010. Details will be announced in a future edition of the SOAS e-news.

December 2009

More than 1,300 people watched Noam Chomsky speak at an event co-hosted by the Department of Development Studies and the Centre for International Studies and Diplomacy (CISD) at SOAS on Tuesday 27 October 2009. It was the largest crowd ever to attend a SOAS event.

The talk has been posted on the SOAS website and can be streamed or downloaded through the SOAS events webpage. The audio for the event can also be streamed through the CISD website and the SOAS-affiliated online radio station OpenAir.

The audience was drawn from SOAS, the general public and the media, who turned out to watch Chomsky deliver his free talk, entitled 'Crises and the Unipolar Moment', at the Institute of Education’s Logan Hall.

Chomsky is a professor emeritus of linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and is widely considered the father of modern linguistics. But today he is more widely known for his political activism, particularly his condemnation of U.S. foreign policy and what he sees as the manipulation of the mass media by governments and large corporations.

The event was completely booked up well in advance, but that didn’t stop hundreds of Chomsky fans from showing up at the door hoping for last-minute seats. However, it was also broadcast to students and staff in the SOAS Students’ Union and streamed live on the School’s website. Web traffic was so great at times that some would-be viewers were unable to stream the talk, including at least one eager Chomsky fan in Lebanon who called the School asking for technical help.

“The turnout for this event was truly extraordinary, and I think it’s a testament to how much Professor Chomsky’s ideas chime with our challenging times,” said Dan Plesch, Director, CISD. “SOAS is a natural home for speakers who can spark a thoughtful and provocative debate on issues of global importance.”

Chomsky, who is 81, spoke for nearly three hours on subjects ranging from the banking crisis to nuclear proliferation. A central premise of his talk was that the dominance of the United States as the sole remaining superpower is coming to a close with what he sees as the collapse of its economic model.

SOAS Director Paul Webley welcomed Chomsky to the School along with Alfredo Saad-Filho, Head of Development Studies; Dan Plesch, Director of CISD; and Gilbert Achcar, Professor of Development Studies and International Relations.

Others in attendance included Baroness Kennedy, President of SOAS, and Bianca Jagger, who is noted for her human-rights activism.

October 2009

A group of SOAS students eager to test the concept of "Football Beyond Borders" have returned from a men's football tour of Turkey and Syria. They report that the international language of football really can work wonders - in their case even overcoming the odd tummy trouble, border snafu and culture clash.

During their September tour, the team played eight matches against university, club and charity teams in Turkey (Istanbul, Van, Diyarbakir and Adana) and Syria (Aleppo and Damascus). The team also played a group of Iraqi refugees in Aleppo, a match organised by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). The teams varied widely in their skills and included Turkish, Kurdish, Syrian, Iraqi, Lebanese and Armenian players.

Several matches were especially memorable, according to Jasper Kain, an International Relations student and captain of the team.

Before a match in Turkey against Diskispor, a semi-professional Kurdish side, organisers presented each SOAS player with a bouquet of flowers and released a flock of doves in a symbolic peace gesture.

In Syria, a hundred supporters cheered on the Iraqi refugees, including the players’ wives and children. That match was followed by a "well-wishing ceremony", and the SOAS players aim to plant a tree here at the School in honour of the match.

Finally, 15 SOAS exchange students participating in the ERASMUS programme turned up at the match against the University of Damascus. Their support was needed, as this was the most gruelling of the matches: the Syrian team was filled with excellent players, and its captain was a Syrian national team veteran. In the end, the SOAS students felt lucky to lose to them by only 5-2. After the match, the two teams shared a festive dinner.

"We were the first foreign university sports side ever to visit Syria, and the Syrian authorities were keen to ensure that we were treated with great respect," Jasper said. "The hospitality was exceptional, and we hope to reciprocate this with a return leg of Syrian students in 2010."

The footballers received a great deal of media attention during their trip, including national TV news stories in Turkey and Syria. The team are producing a film about the tournament which will be shown at a later date. Plans to organise a return trip in 2010 for the Syrian and Turkish teams are already being discussed.

"Our trip was very much in the spirit of the 'soft power' diplomatic approach that the West appears to be adopting towards this region of the world in the post-Bush era," Jasper said. "The trip left us with a feeling of optimism, that East-West relations can be more amicable than they have been over the last decade."

The Football Beyond Borders trip was organised with support from the SOAS Students' Union and the British Council in Damascus. Players’ blogs about their experiences can be found on the project’s website, www.soasbeyondborders.co.uk.

October 2009

SOAS alumnus Martin Bright has been named political editor of the London-based Jewish Chronicle, the world’s oldest Jewish newspaper.

Bright, who earned his master’s degree in African History at SOAS in 1997, is the first non-Jewish political editor in the 168-year history of the newspaper.

He was previously the political editor of the New Statesmen and home affairs editor of the Observer. His writing has often provoked strong reaction from those on both the left and the right.

"I know that some people will see my accepting the job as confirmation that I'm not only the first non-Jewish political editor of The Jewish Chronicle but I'm also the first left-wing, Neo-Con, Zionist political editor of The Jewish Chronicle," the Independent reported in a news story about his new post.

October 2009

Our Alumni Contacts in New Delhi, Anil Malhotra (LLM 1985) and Ranjit Malhotra (LLM 1993) met with Roberto Toscano, Italian Ambassador to India, during a three-day visit to Chandigarh in September 2009.

Ranjit, who holds the position of Honorary Consular Correspondent of the Italian Embassy for the State of Punjab and Chandigarh, accompanied the Ambassador and colleagues to the Chief Minister of Punjab, Governor of Punjab and all official meetings and engagements within the region.

This included an event at the Army Institute of Law, Mohali (Punjab), where the Italian Ambassador delivered a talk on Public International Law. Anil was invited to speak on NRI issues and problems in the field of Private International Law.

Mr Toscano was accompanied by his wife Mrs Toscano, and Italian Embassy colleagues, Niccolo Tassoni (Head of Commercial Section) and Dr Annis Gabriele (Head of Consular and Political Section).

To get in touch with Anil and Ranjit, and for a list of all SOAS Alumni Contacts, please visit www.soasalumni.org/worldwide.

Group photograph of students, faculty, staff, and the Italian diplomats at AIL Mohali.

Anil Malhotra addressing the audience of students at AIL Mohali.

September 2009

TNS India are conducting a survey for the British Council in India to find out the market value perspective of UK graduates amongst Indian employers. Being a UK alumnus, you will be able to support their study by completing a short survey.

Please complete out the survey at http://online.tns-global.com/wix/p524136159.aspx . The survey will take 15 minutes of your time, and the survey deadline is 5 November 2009. On behalf of Education UK India, thank you for your time!

Law student Yaa Ofori-Ansah has been named a future leader as part of a “power list” of the 100 most influential black people in Britain, published by Powerful Media.

Yaa, 21, is entering her third year studying law at SOAS and has racked up an impressive list of political experience.

She has done placements in Parliament, with her local MP Martin Linton, at West London magistrates' and county courts as well as shadowing an MP in Ghana. She is building an orphanage in her mother's hometown in Kwahu in southern Ghana.

“I've grown up interested in politics, especially African politics. I had a very independent and focused mother who always encouraged my education. If I can be a role model for other young people then that's an honour and a blessing,” she said.

The list, published by Powerful Media, is released in partnership with investment bank JP Morgan and media sponsor Thomson Reuters. Editor, Adenike Adeniture, said a list of role models near their age could encourage young people: “We constantly hear peer pressure is what gets a lot of young people into trouble, so we reasoned that surely it could work the other way round, too.”

Source: London Evening Standard

September 2009

Congratulations to Professor David Pong (PhD History FE 1966), who has received a 2009-10 Fulbright Scholar grant to lecture at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) and to serve as a consultant for the reform of the higher education system.

Awarded by the U.S. Department of State and the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board, the Fulbright awards have been given to approximately 1,100 faculty and professionals to travel abroad and are given on the basis of academic or professional achievement as well as demonstrated leadership potential.

Professor of History and Director of the East Asian Studies Program at the University of Delaware, Professor Pong will work part time with the Hong Kong General Education Initiative, which consists of six other academic members and university administrators from the United States. The group will study general education issues, especially the transition of the region's seven universities from three-year colleges to four-year colleges in 2012.

Pong said the group is known as the “Team Fulbright” and he was invited to participate because, as chairperson of the Department of History from 1992-98 and director of East Asian Studies at UD, he has had experience in creating UD's general education initiatives, including interdisciplinary courses, experiential learning, a capstone course, clusters of courses within the context of study abroad program and others. The University of Delaware has made “significant strides in the area of general education,” Pong said.

Part of Team Fulbright's responsibilities includes visiting all of Hong Kong's universities and possibly universities in nearby Macau and parts of Southern China. He also will give talks on his research.

In addition, Pong will serve as a Fulbright Scholar in Residence at the Hong Kong American Center and a Fulbright Visiting Scholar, assigned to the Centre for East Asian Studies, the Department of History and the Office of University General Education at CUHK. He will teach a course on modern Chinese history and is affiliated with Chung Chi College, CUHK's oldest college.

“Being located in a region rich in resources for the study of modern Chinese history,” Pong said, “I shall also conduct scholarly research in whatever time is available. I am currently engaged in a book-length study of industrial development and labor relations in the late 19th- and early 20th-century China -- a large project that will last many years.”

Pong has bachelor's and doctoral degrees from SOAS and teaches courses on Asian civilization and China at UD. He has served as editor-in-chief of the Encyclopedia of Modern China and has written numerous articles and books on modern China.

Source: UDaily

September 2009

The largest reference of its kind in a Western language, the Encyclopedia of Modern China showcases the work of an international body of prominent scholars, who offer accessible, original, and authoritative analysis of all aspects of the history and culture of China since 1800.

The encyclopedia includes contributions by SOAS academics and alumni:

• Professor Hugh Baker, Emeritus Professor of Chinese, SOAS (Chinese 1962, PhD China and Inner Asia 1967)
• Dr Bi-yu Chang, Centre of Taiwan Studies, SOAS
• Dr Dafydd John Fell, Centre of Chinese and Taiwan Studies, SOAS (PhD Politics 2003)
• Dr Lars Laamann, Centre of Chinese Studies, SOAS (PhD History 2001)
• Professor David Pong (PhD History FE 1966), Professor and Director of the East Asian Studies Program, University of Delaware
• Shuchi Shen, PhD candidate, Department of Art and Archaeology

More details on the encyclopedia and a full list of contributors can be viewed online.

September 2009

SOAS student Ben Lattimore braved landmines, desert storms and hungry hippos to reached the fabled city of Timbuktu.

Currently studying towards a BA in Arabic and Persian, and having set up the Expedition Society at SOAS, Bed led a team of intrepid adventurers across scorching Sahara sands and treacherous rivers during a 5,500-mile trip to northern Mali. The 16-strong expedition faced a series of tough challenges, including dodgy border crossings, clapped-out cars, illness and Africa’s big game wildlife.

The 22-year-old said, “It was stressful at times but really good fun. It’s an absolutely amazing place. We met some great people on the way, they were so kind and generous. That’s the biggest part of the trip for me, the people you meet out there.”

One of the hairiest parts of the expedition was carefully crossing a 40-mile long minefield between Morocco and Mauritania. The danger zone was littered with the burnt-out wreckage of vehicles that had strayed from the barely marked road. They also had a run-in with some hippos on the Niger river as they travelled into Mali.
After four weeks of gruelling driving, the team arrived at their final destination in a single vehicle after forgetting to book more transport.

The journey raised money for the Fund4Darfur charity, which helps the victims of the Sudan conflict.

Visit www.timbuktuoverland.co.uk to view videaos from the journey and more.

Source: Daily Gazette

September 2009

Congrats and welcome to our newest alumni! Almost 800 undergraduate and postgraduate SOAS students graduated last week at SOAS, and along with their families, were in attendance for the annual graduation ceremonies, which took place at Logan Hall (Institute of Education) on 22-24 July 2009.

A lifelong philanthropist, the former Leader of the House of Lords and a US academic were also amongst those receiving Honorary Fellows from SOAS during the ceremonies.

Awards were given to Sir Joseph Hotung, successful businessman and philanthropist; Professor Victor Lieberman, History and Southeast Asian History, University of Michigan; Baroness Amos, Britain’s first black woman to serve as a Minister in the cabinet and former Leader of the House of Lords; Professor David Parkin, leading Anthropologist; and, Cynthia Enloe, Research Professor of International Development and Women’s Studies at Clark University, Massachusetts. To read more on these Honorary Fellows, please click here.

The Alumni Relations teams were also very much involved in the celebrations, informing new graduates about their lifelong relationship with SOAS, with free alumni merchandise, sweets, and ice cream given to graduates over the three days!

The celebratory atmosphere at Russell Square was fantastic, with the ceremonies followed by a drinks and canapes receptions on each of the evenings. The ceremonies were streamed on the SOAS website, enabling a worldwide audience to watch the event live. For copies of this year's Graduation DVD, please click here.

July 2009

Professor Werner Menski, Professor of South Asian Laws at SOAS, was awarded the UK Jurists Award 2009 at an awards ceremony at the Crown Plaza Hotel, Buckingham Gate, London on 14 June 2009.

Professor Menski received the award for his unique achievement in legal education, focusing on study of the law and legal systems of South Asia and Africa. He has contributed to creating an understanding of ethnic minorities and different legal systems. The award was presented by the Rt. Hon. Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers, Senior Law Lord and Designated President of the Supreme Court of the UK.

Congratulations to Professor Menski!

June 2009

HRH Princess Widjan, Jordanian Ambassador to Italy and SOAS alumna (PhD Art and Archaeology 1993), is currently exhibiting at the LipanjePuntin gallery in Rome. Her 'I am You' exhibition is an explosion of colour and transparency, with a skilful use of calligraphy, in an attempt to portray the metaphysical side of love.

The theme of the exhibition, curated by Khalid Khreis, is 'love', which as the Princess says, ''represents a constant and sublime source of inspiration''. In harmony with Sufi thought (the mystic branch of Islam) and in an attempt to capture the profound essence of the relationship between human beings and their surroundings, in her second one-woman show in Rome, the artist plays with the concept of 'you are me', which ''according to Sufism means the unity between the lover and the loved, whether it be God, a person, or nature''.

Wijdan’s own artistic practice is situated at the cutting edge of the modern calligraphic styles in the visual arts that incorporate contemporary ideas and western media. Part of the world of art for more than forty years, with a doctorate in the History of Islamic Art from SOAS , the Jordanian Princess says she is pleased with the attention being paid now by the West to contemporary Islamic art, ''In the 1980s and 1990s nobody was interested in the artistic output of the Arab countries. Only in the last decade of last century and even more in this first part of the twenty-first century has the world begun to notice the East''.

In 1979, the Ambassador founded the Royal Society of Fine Arts in Jordan, ''a place where Arabic artists and artists from all the developing countries can exhibit their work, without prejudice or discrimination''. Profoundly convinced that Art is the right way to recover dialogue between the West and the Arab world which broke down after September 11, the Princess doesn't hide her wish to organise another show in Italy, but says that ''it is still too soon''. The Ambassador has worked over the years to found the opening in 1980 of the National Art Gallery of Jordan in Amman, as well as the School of Art and Design at the University of Jordan, where she is President, in 2002.

http://www.lipanjepuntin.com/gallery_next.php

June 2009

Nobel Peace Prize winner and SOAS alumnus Dr Rolph Payet explained the human failures which have led to climate change and outlined his blueprint to overcome them at a special lecture in London on 28 May 2009.

An alumnus of the Centre for Development, Environment and Policy (CeDEP) at SOAS, Dr Payet also launched and praised the new postgraduate distance learning module Climate Change and Development, which is run bySOAS.

Payet, from the Seychelles, was the lead author with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and he shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize jointly awarded to the IPCC and Al Gore.

During the lecture, Payet set out his ambitious hopes for the UN climate change conference in December. The Special Advisor to the President of the Republic of the Seychelles emphasised the benefits of adopting multidisciplinary and integrated approaches towards climate change and development. He explained how climate change mitigation and adaptation are not mutually exclusive and how strategies such as coastal tree planting can benefit both mitigation and adaption efforts. Payet said he saw the current economic crisis as an "opportunity" to reassess the existing global economy and he has "hope" for the future.

The new Climate Change and Development distance learning module, run by CeDEP, was also launched at the event entitled Countdown to Copenhagen: What Next for Climate Change and International Development? Payet said the module would help students and professionals to approach the complex issue of climate change and development in a multidisciplinary way and encourage them to ask the right questions. The module provides a foundational understanding of core natural and social science processes and of technical and policy issues, and will be available worldwide from February 2010.

June 2009

SOAS alumnus, Dr Atiur Rahman (PhD Economics 1983) is a renowned economist who was appointed as the Governor of Bangladesh Bank on 1 May 2009.

Prior to his appointment, he was a Professor in the Department of Development Studies, University of Dhaka, and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Shamurmay, a centre for research and development in Bangladesh. He was also Chairman of Board of Directors of Unnayan Shamannay, a non-profit organisation for research, development and cultural learning.

His previous roles also include Director of Sonali Bank, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Janata Bank, and a long tenure as a Senior Research Fellow at the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS). He has also done extensive published research on the micro-finance revolution in Bangladesh and was Chairman of the Credit Development Forum (CDF) for many years.

Dr Rahman studied at Mirzapur Cadet College and read both BA and MA Economics from Dhaka University. He was awarded a Commonwealth Scholarship and completed his PhD from the School of Oriental and African Studies in 1983. His fellowships include Visiting Research Fellowship at the Institute of South East Asian Studies, Singapore (1998-99), a Ford Foundation Post Doctoral Fellowship at the University of London (1991-92) and a Commonwealth Development Fellowship to conduct research at the University of Manitoba in Canada (1989).

Besides, he has been deeply involved in directing a number of socio-cultural organisations including Bishwa Sahitya Kendro and Monajatuddin Smriti Sangsad. He was General Secretary of Bangladesh Economic Association and is a life member of Asiatic Society, Bangladesh and Bangla Academy.

Dr Rahman has great interest on development and public welfare issues. He is a well- known public figure and has been a pioneer in advocating pro-poor participatory budgeting as well as environment and gender sensitive budgeting. He has served as Project Director on international and national projects related to socio-economic development.

Among the many awards he has received are the Atish Dipankar Gold Medal (2000) and the Chandrabati Gold Medal (2008).

May 2009

Jemima Khan (MA Middle Eastern Studies 2003) and Fatima Bhutto (MA South Asian Studies 2005) met with Zeba and Victoria from the Alumni Relations team when they dropped by the SOAS campus recently. Both alumnae are passionate about their postgraduate alma mater and chose the SOAS Library as the location for a photo shoot to accompany an article written by Jemima and featuring Fatima. The article will be published in a leading fashion and lifestyle magazine later this year.

View our list of other Notable Alumni

May 2009

Congratulations to Dawood Azami (MA International Studies and Diplomacy 2006) for being awarded the BBC's Global Reith Award for Outstanding Contribution.

Presented by legendary BBC natural history broadcaster Sir David Attenborough at a BAFTA ceremony on 12 March 2009, the lifetime achievment award was given to Dawood on overall performance.  

Whilst presenting the Award, Director of the BBC Global News Division, Richard Sambrook, introduced Dawood at the ceremony with the following words,

"The winner of the Outstanding Contribution Award is a journalist who embodies all of the best values of the BBC and the Global News. He has worked across the whole of the Division, including the World Service, World News Television, and the World Service Trust; as well as other areas of the BBC journalism. He has taken on a number of responsibilities beyond his editorial remit and he has been an inspiration to audiences thorugh his original approach and enthusiasm when tackling controversial issues, successfully showcasing his cutting edge content across all platforms - TV, Radio and Online. And his courageous investigative journalism has made a real impact on our audiences around the world."

Dawood has been working with the BBC World Service as a Senior Producer/Desk Editor for ten years. Warmest congratulations to Dawood for his achievement!

May 2009

Set up by three female entrepreneurs, including Co-founder/Creative Director and SOAS alumna, Noura Bouzo (MA History of Art and/or Archaeology 2006), Oasis Magazine focuses on progress taking place in Saudi society acting as a bridge that connects the Saudi community to the rest of the world.

Since its launch in 2007, the magazine has fast become popular and is the only English magazine to cover contemporary aspects of life in Saudi. Through their magazine,the founders' hope to change the view of Saudi Arabia by, "...showcasing the progressive side of our nation, from entrepreneurs, and artists to environmentalists and everybody in between...to show that change is sweeping our nation. And, hopefully to be examples ourselves of what you can achieve and how much understanding you can create between people of different cultures."

Visit Oasis Magazine online at www.oasis-mag.com.

May 2009

President Barack Obama has announced the nomination of SOAS alumnus and seasoned diplomat, Ambassador Jonnie Carson (History Africa 1975) as Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs.

Until his nomination, Carson was the National Intelligence Officer for Africa on the National Intelligence Council. He joined the NIC in September 2006, after a 37-year career in the Foreign Service. Prior to this appointment, Carson served as the Senior Vice President of the National Defense University in Washington DC (2003-2006).

Carson's Foreign Service career includes ambassadorships to Kenya (1999-2003), Zimbabwe (1995-1997), and Uganda (1991-1994); and Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of African Affairs (1997-1999). Earlier in his career he had assignments in Portugal, Botswana, Mozambique and Nigeria.

He has also served as desk officer in the Africa section at State's Bureau of Intelligence and Research; Staff Officer for the Secretary of State (1978-1979), and Staff Director for the Africa Subcommittee of the US House of Representatives (1979-1982). Before joining the Foreign Service, Ambassador Carson was a Peace Corps volunteer in Tanzania.

He has a BA in Arts in History and Political Science from Drake University and a MA in International Relations from the School of Oriental and African Studies. 

Ambassador Carson is the recipient of several Superior Honour Awards from the Department of State and a Meritorious Service Award from Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright. The Centers for Disease Control presented Ambassador Carson its highest award, "Champion of Prevention Award," for his leadership in directing the US Government's HIV/AIDS prevention efforts in Kenya.

Senator Russ Feingold, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommitee on African Affairs has hailed Carson’s choice describing him as “an accomplished career foreign service officer.”

March 2009

The Geneva-based World Economic Forum (WEF) named a Syrian entrepreneur and SOAS alumnus to be among 200 most distinguished young leaders in 2009. Abdulsalam Haykal (MA International Studies and Diplomacy 2002), founder and CEO of Transtek Information Systems and Haykal Media, was selected as a Young Global Leader by WEF’s selection committee, composed of top media leaders and chaired by Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abullah of Jordan.

Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum said that Haykal’s nomination was “in recognition of [his] record of professional accomplishments, [his] commitment to society and [his] potential to contribute to shaping the future of the world through [his] inspiring leadership.” Schwab added that "the World Economic Forum is a true multi-stakeholder community of global decision-makers. Among the Forum communities, the Young Global Leaders represent the voice for the future and a catalyst for initiatives in the global public interest. As we currently face one of the most challenging times economically and socially, the Young Global Leaders are even more important in developing, designing and leading a world committed to positive change."

Haykal said in a statement, “I’m very happy to have this honor bestowed on me by the World Economic Forum. It does not give recognition to me only, but to all the young men and women of Syria, who have taken upon themselves the commitment to lead their societies through serious and creative initiatives. Those are the ones who are leading the positive change, building on the country’s legacy as a principal contributor to the human civilization for thousands of years. They are courageous individuals that take charge in at this time of reform and transformation, and stand up for Syria’s historic role as a maker of peace and prosperity for the region and the world.”

March 2009

The House of Lords provided the venue for the launch of Capital L, the London consortium of the Routes into Languages initiative, on Tuesday 24 February. Capital L, led by SOAS and London Metropolitan University, will deliver activities and programmes to engage young people with language study and to showcase the personal and professional opportunities language study affords.

SOAS alumnus David Lammy MP (LLB 1993), Minister for Higher Education, gave the keynote speech, in place of Lord Dearing, who sadly passed away last week but who was instrumental in the formation of the Routes into Languages project. Mr Lammy said, "Learning languages offers students the opportunity to experience working and studying abroad, bringing with it the benefit of increased cultural awareness, improved self-reliance, as well as increased employability. I believe this project will make a significant impact on the country's language capability."

For more information please visit the Capital L, Routes into Languages
website at www.routesintolanguages.ac.uk/london.

Get involved!

Capital L is keen to involve SOAS alumni in its effort to encourage and support young people to continue to study languages. In this capacity, alumni will act as role models and visit secondary schools to speak to young people about the personal and professional benefits of learning languages as well as about their experience of university. Alumni-volunteers would be fully supported and asked to commit to a minimum of two visits per academic year. Visits to schools would be facilitated through Capital L central office but arranged around alumni-volunteers' availability. Contact us at alumni@soas.ac.uk for more information.

February 2009

The families of SOAS MSc International Politics 2002 alumni, Ms Charlie Ashley and Mr Aidan Mehigan are delighted to announce that they are to be married in Ireland in August 2009.

After having met in the halls of SOAS at the start of their masters course, Aidan and Charlie struck up a lasting friendship. After pursuing their careers in very different parts of the world (Charlie in Jerusalem, Aidan in London),  they met again, and the rest, as they say, is history!

February 2009

Giles Ji Ungpakorn (MA South East Asian Studies 1995), a leading university lecturer in Bangkok, who has joint British and Thai nationality fled Thailand earlier this month, in the face of a lengthy sentence under the country's lese-majesty laws, which forbid criticism of the king. He is the latest person to face prosecution under the laws, seen as an attempt by the government to stifle dissent.

Giles Ji Ungpakorn, 54, arrived in England after being charged under the laws. He had been due to present himself to the police in Bangkok and could have faced 15 years in jail if found guilty.

"I did not believe I would receive a fair trial," said Ungpakorn, an associate professor of political science at Chulalongkom University and a contributor to the New Statesman and Asian Sentinel.

Ungpakorn, who has an English mother and son, and who studied at Sussex and Durham universities and the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, is the author of 'A Coup for the Rich', in which he criticises the 2006 military coup.

He said that the charges arose out of eight paragraphs in the first chapter deemed insulting to King Bhumibol. He claimed that the director of a university bookshop stocking his book had informed the special branch that it "insulted the monarchy". The offending paragraphs deal with incidents around the coup.

The English chapter of PEN, the international writers' organisation, has written to Bill Rammell, the Foreign Office minister who is due to visit Thailand, urging him to make representations to the Thai government.

Academics from the UK, India, South Africa, Turkey, France, Greece, Poland, Canada, Australia and other countries have also protested. A group, including Professor Alex Callinicos, Susan George and Dennis Brutus have signed a petition expressing "deep concern". In a letter to the Guardian recently, more than 30 academics urged that charges be dropped.

February 2009

Poet, Writer and Translator, Dr William Radice (Bengali Language 1974), Senior Lecturer in Bengali at SOAS, writes that, "Britain should not lose faith in the ability of a poet laureate to have something worth saying" (The Times, 13 January 2009).

Dr Radice is making a bid for the Poet Laureateship, and welcomes the support of SOAS alumni!

"SOAS support - including support from alumni abroad - is very important to me, as one of my points in the article is that the post should have an international dimension" Dr William Radice

The Government has asked the public to send in their views on who the next Poet Laureate should be when Andrew Motion stands down in May after a 10-year term.  If you agree that William Radice should be the next Poet Laureate, please email your support TODAY to the Rt Hon Andy Burnham MP, Secretary of State for Culture, Media & Sport, at enquiries@culture.gov.uk or write to the postal address given in the flyer.  Please don’t forget to give your name, occupation and the place where you live.

Dr William Radice has an international reputation and is well known as a translator of Tagore. He is a noted Bengali scholar and lectures in that language at SOAS. Dr Radice has been a long-term contributor to the SOAS Alumni Newsletter, and his poetry has been featured a number of times in the newsletter over the past decade. He has written poems on official School occasions, and his name and work is known to alumni, amongst others. Andrew Norman Wilson reviews two poetry books by Radice, which can be viewed at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/3620264/World-of-books.html.

A Poet Laureate should serve humanity, make
Waves, summon up storms of heart-break,
Joy, rage, wonder, for everyone’s sake… (W.Radice)

*On 11 February the Newcastle Journal published a feature on Dr Radice with a  poem they had specially commissioned. You can read the poem and watch a video Dr Radice reciting it online.

Visit Dr Radice's website at www.williamradice.com.

January 2009

"We are very pleased to announce that the occupation of the Brunei Gallery Suite by students ended peacefully at 1700 on Wednesday 14 January following constructive negotiations between the protestors and senior School managers, facilitated by the Students’ Union.

The MOD has decided to remove their exhibition, which was due to run until 16 January, a day early. The School has agreed to allow the Students’ Union to run Students’ Union events in the Brunei Gallery Suite during today, Thursday 15 January and tomorrow, Friday 16 January. The School and the Students’ Union have agreed to enter into discussions to agree a policy with regard to future military presence on SOAS premises. We have also agreed to continue our ongoing discussions with regard to securing better usage for students of the Brunei Gallery Suite and the Brunei Gallery Lecture Theatre (with a preliminary agreement for minimum usage to be agreed soon). The project reviewing the School’s current contractual arrangements for catering and conferencing services will continue, in consultation with students and staff.

In this instance, the School has agreed that no student will suffer any repercussions as a result of the occupation. However, the School and the Students’ Unions cannot condone illegal activities and the Students’ Union has numerous channels that students can use in the School for protest, debate and engagement, which have been used successfully over the past years. Students are reminded that illegal activity of this kind should normally result in a student being dismissed from the School.

The School would like to thank the Students’ Union, especially Nizam Uddin, for working with us in such a constructive way. The Students’ Union would like to thank the School for engaging in meaningful dialogue over the issues raised by the protestors."

Professor Paul Webley, Director and Principal and Sharon Page, Registrar and Secretary, SOAS

Nizam, Ben and Marya SOAS Students’ Union

SOAS News: www.soas.ac.uk/news

15 January 2009

The Centre for Financial and Management Studies (CeFiMS) at SOAS has joined hands with the DIFC Centre of Excellence (CoE) to offer its prestigious MSc in Finance and Financial Law in Dubai.

For the first time in the region, students can directly benefit from the expertise of CeFiMS through lectures delivered at the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC). Designed to create a new kind of finance professional, the MSc programme offers the multi-disciplinary expertise necessary for professionals to thrive in today's fast-growing financial industry.

For further information on the programme, view the brochure online.

January 2009

SOAS alumnus and Malawian youthful law researcher, Dr Thoko Kaime (PhD Law Research 2006) has been named among the next generation of African leaders by The Banker magazine, published by the influential Financial Times of London.

Kaime previously received an LLM in international human rights law from the University of Pretoria after studying at the University of Malawi and the University of Western Cape. He then completed a PhD at SOAS in 2006. Kaime's His research areas include children's rights, human rights, intellectual property protection and water law.

The Banker, in its current edition, noted that "good news from Africa is often drowned out by a tide of negative reporting", saying it aimed to combat this "by profiling the achievements of leading young Africans...With help from the World Economic Forum (WEF), we have identified some young Africans who we believe represent the future of the continent".

January 2009

Professor John Atta-Mills (MPhil Law 1970), was sworn in as Ghana’s fifth democratically elected president at the Independence Square, Accra on 7 January 2009. 

Ghana's new president took office vowing to "heal wounds and unite our dear nation" following a peaceful but tense election that secured the country's status as one of the continent's few stable democracies.

Tens of thousands of people crowded Independence Square for the inauguration of John Atta Mills, the opposition candidate who won the runoff election with 50.23 percent of the vote. It was the closest election in the West African country's history.

Atta-Mills holds a PhD in Law from SOAS and a doctorate degree from Stanford Law School, USA, where he majored in taxation and economic development. The former lecturer at the Faculty of Law, University of Ghana, Legon, spent 25 years in the university as a teacher where he rose to become an associate professor. He made his big break into Ghanaian politics when he was appointed Vice- President to former president Jerry Rawlings from 1992 to 2000. He had also lost two elections to former president John Kufuor.

Ghana, a country of about 23.5 million people, has received both local and international commendation for conducting the election in a free and fair atmosphere.      

January 2009

A busy Alumni Relations team boosts its offerings!

The Alumni Relations team has been very busy over the last few months working to develop the programme of activities, services and benefits the School offers to its former students. A special 'Thank you' to our alumni for the continued support in helping us to achieve so much more! 

A key part of this has been the enhancement of its alumni communications, notably the re-launch of the SOAS Alumni Online Community (www.soasalumni.org) – an interactive website for SOAS alumni. Since its re-launch in August 2008, some 1,000 additional alumni have registered their details with the site, which features a jobs board, career networks, discussion fora, a classmate search function, Class Notes, and many other things.

The team has also redesigned the E-lumni Bulletin, a monthly e-newsletter sent to over 9,500 alumni. This provides alumni with a snapshot of news from SOAS, alumni profiles, and information about events and exhibitions on campus and around the world, and drives traffic to the Online Community. The next issue of the biannual Alumni Newsletter is due to go to print in February and will be designed to reflect the fresh, modern look of the team’s electronic communications.

The team has also focused its efforts on developing and re-energising its regional networks, and since July 2008 ten new alumni have volunteered to be Alumni Contacts for their country or city, coordinating alumni activities in Vancouver, Chile, Mumbai, Delhi, Indonesia, Mozambique, Russia, Sweden, Norway and Thailand.

Alumni events have taken place in various cities in the USA, Canada and India, as well as Nairobi, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Seoul, Bangkok, Taiwan and Turkey. In November Professor Paul Webley and Victoria Moss, Alumni Relations Manager, were joined by 50 alumni in Tokyo for a special event to welcome the new Patron of SOAS Alumni in Japan, HE David Warren, HM Ambassador to Japan. HIH Prince Mikasa, Honorary President of SAIJ and SOAS Honorary Fellow, was also present, and Professor Tim Screech gave a fascinating lecture on the History of Edo.

Events in 2009 will include a dinner and reception at the British Embassy in Abu Dhabi and a formal event in Hong Kong, plus a growing schedule of events elsewhere, aiming to bring together alumni and re-engage them with the School.

As well as our regional networks, we have established professional networks to connect alumni working in fields such as international development, law, finance, and the arts, and to encourage them to assist each other with career development. Bringing together alumni and students is another key area the team will be looking to develop further in 2009, in collaboration with the SOAS Careers Service and the Student Union. This includes an informal careers mentoring programme, opportunities for alumni to share their expertise and experience in particular industries and careers with current students, and participate in student society events.

If you have events or news that you would like to share with the alumni community, please do get in touch with the team at alumni@soas.ac.uk - we would be delighted to help!

December 2008

Dr Benjamin Fortna, Head of the SOAS History Department, first met London Mayor Boris Johnson during the filming of the BBC series 'Who Do You Think You Are?', which featured Mayor Johnson’s various intriguing forbears. In the Mayor’s background is a Turkish branch of the family whose most prominent member, Ali Kemal, was a well-known journalist and politician in early 20th-Century Istanbul. He ran afoul of the emerging nationalist group that was coalescing around Mustafa Kemal (Atatürk), leading to Ali Kemal’s death in 1922.

When a recent seminar at SOAS, part of the Seminars on Turkey series, featured a talk by Dr Laurent Mignon about this ill-fated relative, Dr Fortna invited Mayor Johnson to attend the event. All keen to learn about their relative, Mayor Johnson, his father, and several other family members made appearances at the School to hear the lecture.

December 2008  

SOAS alumna and daughter of Ghana's first president, Samia Nkrumah (MA Near and Middle Eastern Studies 1993), returned home to run for a seat in Parliament in the country's recent elections.

Samia Nkrumah, the daughter of Ghana's first president, Kwame Nkrumah, had been leading "an ordinary life" in Rome as a consultant and freelance journalist.

But after spending 24 years away, she has moved back to Ghana with her husband and 11-year-old son to campaign for a seat in parliament in the remote western district of Jomoro, where her father was raised.

Children capitalising on their parents' name is not new in politics, as the Bush and Gandhi families can attest. But in postcolonial Africa, the children of the continent's elite are often content to attend university in Europe or the US and live a comfortable life abroad.

"I just felt that this is where I should be. I have a sense of responsibility to come back and honor my father's legacy," Samia says. "Here, people give me the strength, they give me the blessing, they give me the push to go on."

Read the full article... 

December 2008 

Living in Tokyo as part of his degree, Steve Doyle (Japanese 2005) became a fan of popular Japanese men's style magazine Men's Non-No, and has now launched his own magazine, BUCK, back in the UK.

Aimed at design-conscious young men, BUCK is the first monthly men's magazine to feature significant food coverage along with fashion and interior stories, with one quarter of editorial content devoted to recipes and restaurants. The magazine is a showcase for new creative talent and in each issue, up and coming artists, bands and actors talk about their own style and tastes.

After a stint in the City, Steve worked his way round Wonderland, Dazed& Confused, and Vogue, and then decided to use his business knowledge and take the plunge, combining the original idea of a fashion magazine with design and food elements. With the growth in popularity of superstar chefs such as Gordon Ramsay and Heston Blumenthal, Steve believed the time was right to present food stories and recipes in a way young men would find interesting and useful.

Steve grew-up in Worcestershire, attending King Edward's School in Birmingham, and later studied Japanese in London at the School of Oriental & African Studies.

November 2008

Thursday 30 October marked a special occasion for SOAS. Baroness Helena Kennedy QC, President of SOAS, joined the SOAS community to give the first President’s Lecture. Baroness Kennedy spoke on the “War on Terror – A Corruption of Law” to a lecture theatre of SOAS students, staff, alumni, honorary fellows and invited guests. She called on her background in terrorism and human rights law to shed light on issues surrounding the global War on Terror. Her commentary provoked the types of questions, debate and conversation that make SOAS tick. After her address, she graciously entertained questions from an audience stimulated by her reflections.

Following the lecture, Baroness Kennedy joined guests in the Brunei Gallery Suite for a reception and, more importantly, an opportunity to further engage with the SOAS community and invited guests. Musician Kadialy Kouyate entertained guests with his renowned music on the Senagalese kora.

Baroness Kennedy is an accomplished lawyer in the fields of criminal law, human rights and civil liberties. She has acted in many prominent cases of the last decades including the Brighton Bombing Trial, Guildford Four Appeal, the bombing of the Israeli Embassy, the abduction of Baby Abbie Humphries and a number of key domestic violence cases.

View the lecture online

October 2008

SOAS alumnus and Member of Parliament, David Lammy (LLB 1993) has been promoted to become the new Minster of State for Higher Education and join the Privy Council, by Prime Minister Gordon Brown (October 2008).

This promotion within the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills, continues David’s role in creating the best possible educational outcomes for young people and in training a highly skilled workforce for Britain, in an increasingly globalised world.

Following his new appointment, David Lammy said, “I’m really excited by the new opportunities this promotion will provide. Expanding opportunities in Higher Education has been a passion of mine for many years, and having an opportunity to shape these policies in Government is a challenge I now relish.”

After a very exciting year as Minister for Skills - championing apprenticeships, work place learning, adult skills, Union Learn and offender learning - David leaves behind a legacy where skills are now seen as at the heart of Government and key engine for personal development and national renewal.

Political profile
David Lammy is one of the rising stars of the Commons. He was the youngest MP when he won a by-election in June 2000 following the death of Bernie Grant and already had an impressive career behind him.

David studied for a degree in law at SOAS, graduating in 1993. He continued onto a Masters degree at Harvard Law School, being the first black Briton to study at Harvard, and was the youngest barrister in the country when he qualified in 1994.

David was a Labour member of the Greater London Assembly, and established himself in the Commons as a Labour loyalist with an emphasis on social justice and multicultural inclusion.

He also takes a strong interest in African affairs. A Christian Socialist and a Fabian, he made a speech seconding the loyal address following the 2001 election, traditionally a job for an up and coming MP and soon afterwards was appointed a parliamentary private secretary to Estelle Morris.

David was elected Member of Parliament for Tottenham at a by-election on 22nd June 2000. Following his re-election in 2001, David became the first Tottenham MP to hold a Government position since 1945. He has served as a Minister in the Department of Health, the Department of Constitutional Affairs, and Minister for Culture in the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

October 2008

PhD and other Doctoral graduates amongst our alumni may well remember the feeling of relief when they finally handed in the bound copies of their thesis. However, destined for closed access library stacks, the majority of theses sit gathering dust, rarely used and rarely read. A vast quantity of significant research is held within the thousands of theses stored by university libraries in the UK.

All this is about to change, however, with the completion of the UK Theses Digitisation Project and the launch of EThOS (the Electronic Theses Online Service) later this year. Up to 20,000 PhD theses (including 264 SOAS theses) will be digitised and made accessible to anyone in the world via EThOS. EThOS will then be acting as a 'one-stop-shop' for all UK theses and continue its service by harvesting e-theses from Institutional Repositories and digitising paper theses on-demand from researchers.  SOAS, in co-operation with the Senate House, has signed agreement with EThOS to participate as Open Access Sponsor for a minimum period of 3 years, hoping to digitise 20 percent of its theses during this time.

If you have any questions or concerns about the digitisation project, please contact the SOAS Library at lib-eprints@soas.ac.uk. Further information regarding the theses digitization project and EThOS can be found on http://ethostoolkit.cranfield.ac.uk.

October 2008

The Japanese-inspired roof garden at SOAS was built during the Japan 2001 celebrations and was officially opened by the sponsor, Mr Haruhisa Handa (Toshu Fukami), an Honorary Fellow of the School, on 13 November 2001. It is open to the public and provides an area away from the noise and bustle of London streets, where visitors can relax and meditate.

The garden is dedicated to Forgiveness, which is the meaning of the Kanji character engraved on the garden’s granite water basin.

Peter Swift, a designer with experience of adapting Japanese garden design principles to the British environment and climate, conceived the garden as a place of quiet contemplation and meditation as well as a functional space complementary to the Gallery and its artistic activities.

For more information on the roof garden, it's design and opening times, please visit the Roof Garden website.

To view a recent article in the Guardian newspaper, please click here.

October 2008

Dr Hwee Tan (MMus Ethnomusicology 1995, PhD Music Research 2003), Research Associate at SOAS, recently presented her research on 'Sounds of the Human World: Globalizing Buddhist Music As An Expression of Spirituality', as part of the East Asian Week series, sponsored by the Center for the Study of Early Asian and Middle Eastern Musics at J.William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences, University of Arkansas.

"Dr Tan is a long-standing colleague whom we meet most often at the annual meetings of the European Foundation for Chinese Music Research," said Elizabeth Markham, UA professor of Ethnomusicology. "[Her] lecture brought us an aspect of musical globalization we would be most unlikely to know anything about here at the University of Arkansas."

Dr Tan researches Buddhist rituals for the dead and its liturgical music in Fujian and northeastern China and Taiwan and also examines modern Buddhist songs.

"I became interested in Buddhist music when I first heard a performance of Buddhist liturgical music by monks from Tianjin and also when I acted as an interpreter for Professor Tian Qing, Buddhist music expert in Beijing's Music Research Institute," Dr Tan said.

During her presentation, Tan discussed the origins of traditional Buddhist music and the modernization and globalization of the music, which has become a phenomenon. Traditional Buddhist music has a long history, originating in India. In the first century, the primary focus of Buddhism was the translation on sutras, but in the sixth and seventh centuries the music began to change, Tan said.

"Buddhist music came from India, brought by central Asian monks who translated it," she said. The development of music became known as early as the 14th century, where it was performed at rituals for the dead for filial piety and paying respects to ancestors.

Notable changes began to occur in 1966, when a monk name Master Xingyun from Mainland China founded the Foguangshan monastery, which promotes the idea of a humanistic view of Buddhist practices, a modern Chinese Buddhist philosophy developed in the 20th century, Tan said.

In 2003, Xingyun wrote more than 200 Buddhist lyrics and openly invited people who were also interested in writing lyrics. The contest, known as "Sounds of the Human World," became an annual competition held in Taipei, Taiwan, and song entries are from a myriad of languages, such as Korean, French, Portuguese, and German, promoted by the Foguangshan branches worldwide, Tan said.

"[The competition] is a modern attempt, but it is not the first attempt to introduce Buddhism," she said. "Since its [mainstream] arrival in the 1950s, many have been trying to introduce it."

"Buddhism was branded as a 'religion of the dead,' and the revival of it began during the Buddhist Reform Movement by a monk name Taixu," she said. "He promoted a modern ideology of religion for the living and coined the term 'living Buddhism' [Rensheng Fojiao]."

During the 1930s, a monk named Hongyi responded to Taixu's call to modernize Buddhism by composing new Buddhist songs. This was an era for social change and to throw away baggage from imperialism, she said.

"It was not a new movement, but a continuation of modernizing ideas to try to attract the youth," Tan said.

The "Song of the Triple Gem," lyrics written by Taixu and the music composed by Hongyi in the 1930s, became the Buddhist anthem but it is "not used in ritualistic practice, which says something about the Buddhist movement," Tan said.

Popular music in the "Sounds of the Human World" competition is an important aspect, making pop music prevalent by fusing Western sounds.

"[On a personal judgment] it's rather painful at times to listen to the music," said Tan, who also said that the songs are produced in five CDs every year. "It can become trivial and banal." However, Tan notes that the music is an emblem of modernity and is a tool for creating solidarity in society to the youth.

Because of the modernity that the competition heavily invests in trying to globalize Buddhism, the question of authenticity is constantly posed. Song entries for the competition include a variety of music genres, such as hip-hop, pop and classical. The songs have moved away from being overly religious and generally deal with world peace and the promotion of compassion, Tan said.

Tan said the model of Buddhism is just beginning to expand and it's too early to assume its impact on long-term goals.

"At the end of the day, the meaning of the words are important and will reach out to people," she said. "Music first pleases the ear and attracts the audience."

View Dr Tan's profile.

October 2008

You may recall completing a questionnaire as part of the Higher Education Statistics Agency's (HESA) Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education survey six months after you finished your studies in 2004/05. You may have seen information from the survey in the media – for example, as part of the University League Tables. The information you provided will also have been used within the institution and by government. 

There is now another opportunity for some of you to let us know what you have been doing since you gained your qualification. IFF Research, on behalf of HESA, is conducting a survey (the ‘DLHE Longitudinal Survey’) and they may send you a questionnaire. The questionnaire will ask you to detail your activities since you graduated in 2004/05.  Any information you provide will help in reviewing and promoting courses and giving current students an insight into early career progression, as well as providing input to government policy development and review.

If you are contacted by IFF Research (by email, post or phone), please take time to complete the survey and return it - your participation is valuable.

You will be able to see the results of this survey on the web next summer. The results of the survey of 2002/03 graduates have already been published and can be seen at Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education Longitudinal Survey - Key Findings Report Published 2007.

October 2008

Photomonth has now become the largest photography festival in the UK, and will feature work by SOAS alumna, Erika Tsuchiya-Bergère (Social Anthropology 2007). With over 100 exhibitions and events taking place in more than 60 galleries and spaces in East London and featuring up to 500 photographers, Photomonth gives recognition to photography as the dominant medium in contemporary art.

Erika Tsuchiya-Bergère graduated from SOAS in 2007 with a BA in Social Anthropology. She then continued onto an MA in photography at Sir John Cass School of Art at London Metropolitan University. The subject of her photography are both documentary and personal, with her upcoming exhibitions showcasing traditional lith prints of young women in the urban landscape as well as a projection of a photographic slideshow. Her interests include cities, urban youth, and identity.

You can view her work on display at the following locations and times during the Photomonth Festival October-November 2008.

Exhibition details
Off the Map - MA Photography Show
Date     6 Oct-14 Nov 2008
Venue  Cargo, 83 Rivington Street, Shoreditch, London EC2A 3AY (Liverpool Street Tube/Station)

Photomonth Photofair
Date   12 & 19 October 2008
Venue Spitafields Traders Market, Brushfield St. E1 (Liverpool Street Tube/Station)

Photomonth Photo
Date    29 Oct-9 Nov 2008
Venue  Dray Walk Gallery, Old Truman Brewery, 91 Brick Lane, E1 6QL

Slideshow Projection Event
Date    5 & 12 Nov 2008
Time   19.00
Venue Café 1001, 1 Dray walk, 91 Brick Lane, London

For more information, please contact Erika at erikaphoto@gmail.com or visit www.telemika.com.

SOAS alumni are offfered concession rate entrance to the new exhibtion at Asia House, '30 Years of Solitude: Photography and Film by Iranian Women', showcasing a selection of work by some of Iran’s most talented and extraordinary women artists.

This is the first exhibition in the UK featuring artists who all live and work in Iran. Curated by architect Faryar Javaherian and artist Haleh Anvari, the exhibition focuses on the feelings of anxiety, isolation and the sense of loss that Iranian society has experienced in the last 30 years.

Exhibition details
Date      Saturday 27 Sept 2008-Saturday 10 Jan 2009
Time     Monday-Saturday 10.00-18.00; Closed Sundays and 24 Dec 2008-4 Jan 2009
Venue   Main gallery, Asia House, 63 New Cavendish Street, London W1G 7LP
Ticket   £2.50; Students and SOAS alumni £1.00; Asia House Friends and under 18s free

Full details of the exhibition and surrounding events can be viewed here. Asia House is also happy to arrange group visits and tours to the exhibition. For further information, contact Asia House on enquiries@asiahouse.co.uk or visit www.asiahouse.org.

Neil Payne (MA Near and Middle Eastern Studies 2003) gives an interesting overview of dining etiquette around the world, including the Middle East, Germany, Japan and America. To read the full article, click here.

Neil has travelled, worked and studied extensively in the Middle East. Based in London, he has successfully completed an MA in Middle Eastern Studies at SOAS. Drawing on his experience as a language teacher, translator and cultural consultant, Neil has established Kwintessential Ltd., a cross cultural communications consultancy that provides cultural awareness training, language tuition, translation and interpretation.

September 2008

The death of prominent Urdu scholar, Professor Ralph Russell (1918-2008), former Head of the Urdu Department at SOAS, was a huge loss to Urdu language and literature.

With 32 years of his life spent at SOAS, Russell passed on his passion, love and knowledge of the Urdu language to his students and friends and enriched the literature of the language with his scholarly research that earned him a unique and abiding place among great names of Urdu literature.

"The era of the old generation of authentic and veteran orientatists has come to an end with Ralph’s passing away and it is a huge loss. He spent all his life in research and teaching in Urdu language", as expressed by Iftikhar Arif, Chairman, Pakistan Academy of Letters on the sad demise of prominent Urdu researcher, critic, translator and teacher Professor Ralph Russell who died in London at the age of 90.

Professor Russell was born in 1918 and spent a long time in India and Pakistan. He spent almost fours years in India during the Second World War and learned Urdu to be able to converse with the soldiers to awaken their political senses. He had earlier completed his education at Cambridge in 1940.

After the war he devoted himself to the study of Urdu language and literature, and joined SOAS in 1949 where he remained till 1981. He accomplished major works as the Head of the Urdu Department  at SOAS (1950-1981), and wrote numerous research and critical essays in Urdu, with very popular and accomplished translations of classical Urdu literature. Among Russell’s many famous works is his translation of Mirza Ghalib’s poetry, 'Ghalib: Life and Letters',the greatest Urdu poet of all times.

Rusell established such a system of Urdu teaching in Britain, which facilitated the learning of the language across Britain. The Government of Pakistan conferred the Sitara-i-Imtiaz upon him in acknowledgement of his valuable services for the promotion of Urdu. Literary circles in Britain have expressed their deep sorrow on his death.

The South Asia Centre at SOAS had celebrated Russell's works in June 2007, with a 'Ralph Russell Day at SOAS', accounts of which can be viewed on the Ralph Russell website.

SOAS alumnus Nadwa Arar (Arabic Languages 1994) writes on the hit Turkish soap opera Noor,which has become the latest pop-culture to take over the Arab world and attracts millions of viewers.

In her article, Nadwa comments on the show's depiction of Turkish society and the impact of Kemal Ataturk, founder of the Turkish Republic and first President. Click here to read Nadwa's article.

Nadwa Arar is also author of the book, A Reunion in Damascus - East-West Dialogue.

SOAS alumnus and veteran correspondent who has covered wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Chris Brummitt (Indonesian Studies 1999), has been appointed as The Associated Press chief of bureau in Islamabad, Pakistan.

Currently news editor in Indonesia, Chris played a pivotal role in coverage of the 2004 tsunami in Asia. In his new assignment, he will oversee coverage of Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan. "Chris Brummitt is an exceptional journalist with a deep passion for Asia news," said John Daniszewski, AP managing editor for international news.

Chris was in charge of AP's news operations in Indonesia on 26 December 2004, when a tsunami triggered by a giant earthquake off the country's northwest tip devastated the Indian Ocean basin, killing up to 230,000 people. Chris filed initial reports from Jakarta and led what came to be a 20-person team in the battered city of Banda Aceh. AP's tsunami coverage won the National Headliner Award for Spot News and the Associated Press Managing Editors' Award for Deadline Reporting in 2005.

Chris joined the AP in Jakarta shortly after receiving a degree in Indonesian literature from SOAS in 1999, and has produced ground-breaking coverage on al-Qaida-affiliated networks in Southeast Asia.  Click here to view a list of articles by Chris.

Alumnus Chris Brummitt juggles oranges for survivors of the tsunami, at a refugee camp on the outskirts of Banda Aceh, 11 July 2005. (AP Photo/Jocelyn Gecker)

Congratulations to SOAS alumnus Jasleen Kandhari (Art History and Archaeology with Music 2001), who has been appointed as the new Curator of Asia at the Museum of Anthropology, University of British Columbia in Vancouver. 

Jasleen previously worked for the British Museum and the British Library, where she curated the exhibiton Faith & Brotherhood: Treasures of the Sikhs. An art historian, Jasleen has lectured extensively across the breadth of Asian art - from Chinese Buddhist texts, Korean ritual art and Japanese decorative arts to Indian textiles, sculpture, armour, decorative arts, paintings and photographs, Sikh Manuscripts, Tibetan Buddhist sculpture and Asian New Media collections and First Nations art, at the National Museums, including the British Museum, Victoria & Albert Museum, British Library, SOAS's Brunei Gallery, National Museums Liverpool and Docklands Museum. Recently, she delivered a seminar on the Role of the 21st Century Curator at the Design Museum. Jasleen has published numerous articles and peer based critical reviews on Asian art collections and exhibitions worldwide.

For the past two years, Jasleen served as a member of the Museums Association’s Editorial advisory panel for the Museums Journal and Museums Practice, with a specific interest in the development of Asian artistic heritage and the value of cultural diversity, as well as virtual initiatives to create collections of the future.

Jasleen obtained her BA in Asian Art History with Asian Music from SOAS in 2001, and her MA in East Asian Art on scholarship from Sotheby's Institute of Art, University of Manchester. A keen musical enthusiast, she sung as a first soprano with the British Museum British Library Singers and played the puk drum as part of the first Korean P’ungmul drumming group at SOAS.

Jasleen can be contacted on Jasleen.Kandhari@ubc.ca.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has appointed SOAS alumnus Michael C Williams (MSc Politics 1973, PhD 1977) as Special Coordinator for Lebanon.

Mr Williams is very familiar with the Middle East, having previously served as UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process and the Secretary-General’s Special Adviser on the Situation in the Middle East, before his appointment as the UK Special Representative for the Middle East and Special Projects. Prior to that, he was the Director for the Asia and the Pacific Division inthe Department of Political Affairs.  From 1999 to 2005, Mr Williams was the Special Adviser to two UK Foreign Secretaries, Robin Cook (1999-2001) and Jack Straw (2001-2005). 

He held a number of senior positions with the UN in the 1990s, including Director of Human Rights in the UN Transitional Administration in Cambodia (UNTAC) and Director of Information in the UN Protection Force in Former Yugoslavia (UNPROFOR). His previous experience ranges from working for the International Institute for Strategic Studies, the BBC World Service and Amnesty International.  He is a member of the Executive Committee and Council of Chatham House (Royal Institute for International Affairs). He has written widely on Asian politics, international security and peacekeeping.

Mr Williams received a BSc in international relations from University College London in 1971, a MSc degree in the politics of developing areas from SOAS in 1973, and subsequently earned a doctorate in politics from SOAS.

SOAS Alumnus Pablo Javier Retamal (African and Development Studies 2001) is our new alumni representative in Chile and would like to hear from fellow alumni in the region. For more information and to join the network in Chile, contact Pablo on pablo.javier.retamal@gmail.com.

SOAS alumni are a well-travelled bunch with highly specialised knowledge of particular countries and regions. We regularly receive requests from alumni asking to make contact with fellow alumni on their regional expertise, and if you would like to share your travelling knowledge, drop us a line at alumni@soas.ac.uk, simply stating the countries/regions. We’ll then contact you, should an alumnus ask for specific country information.

For instance, our most recent request is from alumnus Steven Shalowitz (BA Chinese 1985), who is going out to Rwanda at the end of this month, and would like to get in touch with any alumni that are familiar with the country. If you have any information for Steven, please email at alumni@soas.ac.uk.

Portico Quartet, two members of whom are SOAS alumni Nick Mulvey and Jack Wyllie (both, BA Music 2007), have been nominated for the 2008 Mercury Music award.

Formed in 2005, the four-piece group were discovered after regularly busking outside London's National Theatre and signed to music label, The Vortex, in 2007. Portico Quartet's sound is made distinctive by the use of the hang, a 21st Century percussion instrument used on all their tracks.

The Mercury Music Awards Show and winner annoucement wil be made next month on 9 September 2008. Best of luck to the band! View MySpace.

 
Alumna and award-winning food writer, Fuchsia Dunlop (MA China Area Studies, 1997), has received glowing reviews for her latest book Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper (Ebury Press 2008), a memoir of her bid to master Chinese cooking.

It was hailed by The Guardian as “an example of travel writing at its finest” and Guy Diamond, Food Editor for Time Out called her “the leading writer on Chinese food in the English language”.

Fuchsia writes about Chinese cuisine and food culture for publications including the Financial Times, Gourmet and Saveur, and was named Journalist of the Year by the Guild of Food Writers in 2006.

She is also a consultant for Bar Shu, a Sichuanese restaurant in Soho.

SOAS alumni can now benefit from discounted membership of the Royal Commonwealth Society.

Members are entitled to an extensive list of benefits in the UK (including membership of the stylish Commonwealth Club, refurbished in 2006, and located in central London) and abroad, as membership of RCS extends to over 80 affiliated private clubs all over the world, from Bangladesh to Zambia.

SOAS alumni who are 25 years old or older can join RCS for free (usually a joining fee of £130 is applicable) and at a reduced annual membership fee of £210 (usually £270). Alumni who are 25 years old or younger do not pay the individual joining fee (usually £25) and only pay the £75 annual membership fee.

To take advantage of this offer or to arrange a private tour of the Commonwealth Club, please contact Jamie Gould on +44 (0)20 7766 9203 or email him at jamie.gould@rcsint.org and quote ‘SOAS offer

Mr David Warren CMG (Japanese, 1977) has been appointed Her Majesty's Ambassador to Japan in succession to Sir Graham Fry KCMG who will be retiring from the Diplomatic Service. David will take up his appointment during July 2008. He joined the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 1975 and was posted to Tokyo a year later after language training at SOAS. His other postings have included Nairobi and Hong Kong, and he was most recently Director of Human Resources for the FCO.