Research Focus

Areas of interest include urbanization, environment, public health, popular culture, literature and the arts, new media and information technologies, the role of intellectuals, gender issues, youth, communal identities, local politics, and alienation.

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Research Staff

Lilia Labidi | ليليا العبيدي Visiting Research Professor meill@nus.edu.sg An anthropologist and psychologist by profession, Lilia Labidi holds a doctorate in psychology and a PhD in anthropology from the University of Paris. Labidi was a professor of clinical psychology at the Faculty of Human Sciences at the University of Tunis, where from 1997-2001 she directed a program on The Construction of Public Morality in the Arab World and Africa (Senegal, South Africa, Tunisia, and Egypt). She has been a member of the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton (1995-1996), fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Washington, DC (2001-2002), visiting professor of psychology at the American University in Cairo (2004-2005) and Yale University (2008-2009), and co-founder and active member of the Association of Tunisian Women for Research and Development and the Tunisian Association for Health Psychology. She is the author of several books and numerous articles on the Arab world, treating subjects such as the history of the feminist movement, psychology and sexuality, the construction of identity, attitudes towards death, among others, and has also organized many national and international conferences and exhibitions in Tunisia. Lilia Labidi was Minister of Woman Affairs in the new Tunisian government of National Unity (January-December 2011), following the overthrow of the old regime.

Peter Sluglett | بيتر سلغليت Visiting Research Professor meips@nus.edu.sg Peter Sluglett has been Professor of Middle Eastern History at the University of Utah, Salt Lake City since 1994. He has published widely on Iraq, including Iraq since 1958: from Revolution to Dictatorship, 3rd edn., (2001, with Marion Farouk-Sluglett), and Britain in Iraq: Contriving King and Country (2007). He has also edited and contributed to Syria and Bilad al-Sham under Ottoman Rule: Essays in Honour of Abdul-Karim Rafeq, (2010, with Stefan Weber), and The Urban Social History of the Middle East 1750-1950 (2008). His research at MEI will focus on mapping the decline in political power of the Christians of Lebanon since the Ta’if Accords. Born and educated in England, where he taught at the University of Durham between 1974 and 1993, he has a BA from Cambridge (1966) and a D.Phil from Oxford (1972).

Charlotte Schriwer | شارلت شريفر Deputy Director and Senior Research Fellow meisc@nus.edu.sg Charlotte Schriwer’s research has focused mainly on various historical studies of the Levant region (Jordan, Syria, Lebanon), in particular on agricultural history from the 12th century to the 1800s. She has also explored the question of ethnic identity in the Ottoman architecture of the Levant, and continues research into the Islamic arts of Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. Since joining MEI in 2011, she has started a project documenting the history of protest art in the Arab world, with a focus on the Arab Uprisings. She holds a PhD in History and an MA in Middle East Studies from the University of St Andrews, Scotland, and an MA in Islamic Art and Archaeology from the School of Oriental and African Studies in London.

Navid Fozi-Abivard | نويد فوزي-أبيورد Post Doctoral Research Fellow meinf@nus.edu.sg Originally from Iran, Navid Fozi-Abivard has been researching religious minorities in Iran, including his dissertation on the Zoroastrians, a published essay on the Kurdish Ahl-e Haqq and unpublished work on the Baha’is. His new project as a postdoctoral research fellow at MEI explores the contemporary Iranian politics and is entitled “Neo-Iranian Nationalism: Pre-Islamic Grandeur and Shi’a Eschatology in Iranian Contemporary Politics.” He holds a PhD and a Master of Arts in Socio-Cultural Anthropology, from Boston University and University of Wisconsin Madison, respectively; also a Master of Arts in Applied Sociology and a Bachelor of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies, both from University of Texas Dallas.

Fanar Haddad | فنر حداد Post Doctoral Research Fellow meifh@nus.edu.sg Fanar Haddad (BSc LSE, MPhil Cantab, DPhil Exon) previously lectured in modern Middle Eastern history at the University of Exeter and, most recently, at Queen Mary, University of London. Prior to obtaining his DPhil, Haddad was a Research Analyst at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office where he worked on North Africa. He has since published widely on issues relating to historic and contemporary Iraq. His main research topics are identity, historical memory, nationalism, communal conflict and minority politics. He is the author of Sectarianism in Iraq: Antagonistic Visions of Unity (London/New York: Hurst/Columbia University Press, 2011). His research at the MEI will focus on historical memory and narratives of state in the Middle East.

Nazry Bahrawi | نظري بحراوي Research Associate nazry@nus.edu.sg Nazry Bahrawi is a cultural critic whose commentaries have appeared in the Guardian, South China Morning Post, Khaleej Times and Today newspapers, among others. He has also published refereed essays on postsecular Islam, as well as ideology and translation in Malaysia. At the MEI, he will be exploring critical Islam movements in modern Nusantara and their relation to the Middle East. His research interests are the intersections between literature, culture and theology; world literature and translation; as well as comparative philosophy. Nazry holds a PhD in Comparative Literature from the University of Warwick, and a Masters of Science in General and Comparative Literature from the University of Edinburgh.

Nurhidayahti Mohammad Miharja | نورهدايتي محمد محرجا Research Assistant hidayahti@nus.edu.sg Nurhidayahti Mohammad Miharja holds a BA (Hons) in Sociology and an MA in Arts (Malay Studies) from National University of Singapore. Her research interests include contemporary Muslim thought in Southeast Asia and Turkey, ethno-religious minorities in the Middle East and Muslim civil society.