Associate Professor Shahram Akbarzadeh
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Islamic Studies Room 240 Tel: + 61 3 8344 8895
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Background
A/Professor Akbarzadeh joined Melbourne University in January 2008 as Deputy Director of the National Centre of Excellence for Islamic Studies. He has an active research interest in the politics of Central Asia, Islam, Muslims in Australia and the Middle East. He has been involved in organising a number of key conferences, including a Chatham House rule workshop on Australia's relations with Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan (2007), sponsored by the International Centre of Excellence for Asia Pacific Studies.
In 2000 A/Professor Akbarzadeh was the Middle East Studies conference co-convener and served as the Central and West Asia Councillor for the Asian Studies Association of Australia (1999-2004). He has promoted Asian studies through contacts with industry and the academia by research and publication. He guest edited a special issue of Asian Studies Review on the Middle East (Vol.25, No.2, 2001) and a special issue of the Journal of Arabic, Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies on Globalization (Vol. 5, No.2, 2000). He is a member of the Editorial Board of Global Change, Peace & Security, an internationally refereed journal published by Taylor and Francis in the United Kingdom.
He has published more than 40 refereed papers. Among his latest publications are a sole-authored book on Uzbekistan and the United States, a co-authored book on US Foreign Policy in the Middle East, and a co-authored book on Tajikistan. He is currently working on two new publication projects: a Handbook on Political Islam; and Muslim Women in Australia.
A/Professor Akbarzadeh is the founding Editor of the Islamic Studies Series, published by Melbourne University Press, and a regular public commentator. He has produced key reports for the Australian Research Council (ARC) on Australian based scholarship on Islam, and also for the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) on Muslim integration in Australia.
He is Convenor of the Islam Node for the ARC Asia Pacific Futures Research Network.
A/Professor Shahram Akbarzadeh has supervised Masters and PhD research on:
- Middle East peace process
- Central Asian geo-politics
- Turkish politics
- Muslim feminism in Iran, and
- Islamic radicalism in UK