Middle East & North Africa

Oxford University’s links with the Middle East and North Africa go back almost 400 years. Today, as the importance of understanding and working with the region has become more widely recognised, these links are growing faster than ever. In recent years, Oxford has initiated major new connections with the region in collaborative research, business and leadership training, undergraduate and secondary school education, and public policy development. Oxford researchers are increasingly working collaboratively with colleagues in the region, engaging in fruitful dialogue and discovery.

Oxford is a vibrant centre for the study of the Middle East, with over 70 academics researching and studying the region. Oxford’s Middle Eastern specialists work in a range of disciplines in the humanities and social sciences and conduct research on all major countries within the region. They are doing innovative work in areas such as the art and material culture of the Middle East, drawing on the exceptional resources of the Bodleian Library and the university museums.

Academics at Oxford are also addressing some of the core issues of interest to the region. The Oxford Centre for the Analysis of Resource-Rich Economies (OxCarre), created within the Department of Economics, is analysing Middle Eastern economies, among others. Generations for Peace, an NGO set up by Prince Feisal Bin Al Hussein of Jordan, supports Oxford graduate students who conduct innovative research on peace and conflict resolution. Additionally, diabetes specialists in the Medical Sciences division are working with Middle Eastern governments on diabetes screening, which is of some importance given the high prevalence levels of this disease in the adult population.