The emblematic image featured in The Guardian’s ‘One hundred years of SOAS’ picture gallery shows Sir Cyril Philips, Director of SOAS from 1957 – 1976, looking at plans for the new building with a group of students. Fourth from the right (top) is Professor Philip Jaggar, Emeritus Professor of West African Linguistics (social anthropology and Hausa, 1968), who at the time was the President of the SOAS Students’ Union. Philip
Nearly 55 years after it happened, SOAS alumnus Brian Evans, a former Canadian diplomat and Professor Emeritus at the University of Alberta, recalls the discovery that fellow language student Gordon Lonsdale was actually Soviet intelligence officer Konon Molody. I entered SOAS in early October 1954, a raw young man from the Canadian Prairies. New to London, it took me several tours of Russell Square that foggy morning before a break
Richard Rathbone, Professorial Research Associate, Department of History remembers the SOAS scholar who went on to be an internationally celebrated radical intellectual before his assassination in 1980. The revolutionary historian Walter Anthony Rodney studied for his PhD at SOAS between 1963 and 1966. Born in Guyana, Rodney achieved a first class degree in history at the University College of the West Indies in Jamaica before coming to London. At SOAS
This week, Asad Zaidi shares his thoughts on what SOAS means to him. Asad has followed in the footsteps of his grandfather, Dr Zawar Zaidi, who studied and lectured at the School before becoming a world authority on South Asia. How did you discover SOAS? I first arrived to study at SOAS in 2012 for my masters, but I had already heard of the School from my grandfather. He
SOAS, University of London was founded as the School of Oriental Studies in 1917 and was based at Finsbury Circus. In 1938 it officially became the School of Oriental and African Studies and was based in Vandon House, St James’ Park. The School then moved temporarily to Cambridge during the Second World War. With next year’s opening of Senate House North Block due to usher in a new era, images
I graduated in African studies (Hausa and social anthropology) in 1968. When interviewed, I was told that there was a place on the Hausa programme, a language I knew next to nothing about – pure chance! I subsequently travelled to northern Nigeria to conduct my anthropology research, and this also enabled me to learn more about the rich history of the Hausa people and the complexities of their language. Whilst
In June 2016, SOAS begins a year (actually, 13 months!) of celebrations to mark 100 years of excellence in research and teaching. An exhibition in the Brunei Gallery called ‘100 years of SOAS’ will play a major part in these celebrations by showcasing the School’s achievements. On Tuesday 9 December, a 4-metre Timeline will be put up in the SCR. The Timeline was created in 2009 to engage our Honorary