Centre staff and associates
Centre staff and associates bring together a wide range of expertise covering Islam, politics, history, political economy, international relations and three main languages (Arabic, Persian and Turkish) in relation to the Arab world, Iran, Turkey and Central Asia.
Three of the Centre's academic positions - a senior lectureship and two lectureships - are supported from ANU's joint endowments with the Al-Maktoum Foundation (UAE), and the Iranian and Turkish governments. Under the agreements signed for these endowments, the standard University academic and selection processes apply to these positions as they do to all other ANU appointments.
The Centre's activities are guided by an Advisory Board drawn from academia, government, business and industry. The Centre also calls on the expertise of a panel of International Advisers.
Professor Amin Saikal AMDirector of Centre
Research interests include the politics, history, political economy and international relations of the Middle East and Central Asia.
Email: amin.saikal@anu.edu.au
Professor Neal RobinsonDeputy Director (Research)
Professor Robinson is a leading scholar in Islamic Studies. His current research focuses on contemporary political Islam.
Email: Neal.Robinson@anu.edu.au
Senior Lecturer
Deputy Director of Centre (Administration & Education)
Postgraduate Advisor - Research degrees
Research interests include politics, international relations and conflict resolution in contemporary Central Asia.
email: kirill.nourzhanov@anu.edu.au
Senior Lecturer & Postgraduate Advisor - Coursework degrees
Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al-Maktoum Senior Lecturer
Post-graduate Advisor - Coursework degrees.
Research interests include the politics, political economy and international relations of the Middle East.
email: M.Gray@anu.edu.au
Lecturer
Victoria Mason holds a joint position between CAIS and the School of Politics and International Relations, CASS, ANU.
Dr Mason's Middle East research focuses on the Palestinian question, conflict and conflict resolution in the Middle East (particularly Israel-Palestine and Iraq) and human rights issues in the region. Her wider human rights research includes projects on state violence, the treatment of refugees, and issues of Islamophobia and anti-Arab discrimination in the West.
Email: Victoria.Mason@anu.edu.au
Lecturer, Turkish language & culture
Research interests include Ottoman language, modern Turkish language, Ottoman and Turkish history and culture, and the history of Islam.
email: mehdi.ilhan@anu.edu.au
Lecturer in Persian Language and Iranian Studies.
Research interests include Persian literature and women. Sufism.
Email: Zahra.Taheri@anu.edu.au
Associate Lecturer in Arabic & Convenor of Arabic Program
Research interests include Islamic Studies and women, and Arabic literature and calligraphy.
Email: Huda.Al-Tamimi@anu.edu.au
Dr Mahmoud Fotoohi Rudmanjani
Lecturer in the Persian Program.
Research interests inlcude Persian Language and Literature
Email: Mahmoud Fotoohi-Rudmajani
Associate Lecturer in the Arabic program.
Research interests include Modern Arabic literature and translations from Arabic to French.
Email: France.Meyer@anu.edu.au
Visitors
Adjunct Professor
Research interests include Middle East politics, Persian Gulf security and conflict resolution in the Arab-Israeli context.
email: Bob.Bowker@anu.edu.au
Visiting Fellow
Research interests include international relations of China and countries of Northeast Asia, Asia-Pacific regional cooperation and Australia's foreign policy.
email: stuart.harris@anu.edu.au
Dr Karima Laachir will be a visiting fellow at CAIS until mid-2012. She is on leave from her position at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London.
Dr Madeleine Reeves is a Social Anthropologist at the University of Manchester, where she is currently an RCUK Research Fellow in the Centre for Research on Socio-Cultural Change. Dr Reeves will be a visiting fellow at CAIS during February-March 2012.
General staff
Centre Administrator
Leila Kouatly has been appointed as a part-time administrator in the Centre.
Email: cais@anu.edu.au
Carol Laslett
Postgraduate and Development Manager
Carol has extensive experience at the University, including previous positions at the CAIS over nine years, and four years as the University’s AusAID Liaison Manager. She also has prior experience with the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs. She holds a BA (Development Studies) from The Australian National University. Carol is responsible for managing the Centre’s post-graduate programs and many of its business and outreach activities.
email address: Carol Laslett
Anita Mack
Research Assistant/Publications Officer
The RA/PO manages the Centre's publications, runs the library, organizes library material for the Centre's courses, assists with library information for students and also provides administrative support.
email address: Anita.Mack@anu.edu.au
Associates
Professor William Maley
Director of the Asia-Pacific College of Diplomacy, The Australian National University.
He has been a Visiting Professor at the Russian Diplomatic Academy, and a Visiting Fellow at the Centre for the Study of Public Policy at the University of Strathclyde. He is the author of The Afghanistan Wars (2002), and co-author of The Theory of Politics: an Australian Perspective (1990); Regime Change in Afghanistan: Foreign Intervention and the Politics of Legitimacy (1991) and Political Order in Post-Communist Afghanistan (1992). His co-edited books include Russia in Search of its Future ( 1995); The Soviet Withdrawal from Afghanistan (1989); The Transition from Socialism: State and Civil Society in the USSR (1991) and Fundamentalism Reborn? Afghanistan and the Taliban (1998). In mid-2003, Professor Maley took up a position as inaugural Director of the Asia-Pacific College of Diplomacy at ANU.
Dr Alex Maroya
Assistant Director (Policy) at Universities Australia,
He is responsible for policy development and advocacy on a range of higher education funding and regulatory issues. He was previously Government and Economic Coordinator at the Australian Council for International Development and has worked in a number of policy roles for the Australian Government. Alex’s primary research interests are decolonization in the Middle East and North Africa and post-conflict statebuilding. He has worked extensively with the Sudanese community in Australia and is Chair of the Advisory Board of the Darfur Australia Network.
Dr Kevin Windle
Associate Professor, School of Language Studies, the Australian National University.
He holds a PhD in Slavonic Studies from McGill University, and has also taught at the University of Queensland. He has published articles in the area of Russian and Polish literature and the theory of literary translation, including translation from Arabic into Slavonic languages, as well as a series of articles dealing with the Russian radicals in Queensland in 1911-1923. He has also published translations of numerous historical and literary works from various languages into English.
