Dr Raihan Ismail
Areas of expertise
- Islamic Studies 220403
- Political Science 1606
Biography
Raihan Ismail is a Senior Lecturer at the Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies, ANU. She was a DECRA Fellow from 2019-2022. She was the co-recipient of the Max Crawford Medal in 2018, awarded by the Australian Academy of the Humanities for 'outstanding achievement in the humanities by an early-career scholar'.
Her research interests include Political Islam, sectarianism, and the intertwining nature of religion and politics in the Middle East. She has presented at the Centre for Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard University, examining Saudi clerics and Sunni-Shia relations in the Middle East, the Crawford Australian Leadership forum 'Global Realities', discussing challenges and opportunities for the Middle East, the Canberra Writers Festival, examining the geopolitics of the Middle East, as well as other academic and non-academic events. She delivered the 8th Hancock lecture for the Australian Academy of the Humanities, titled "Hybrid Civilisation or the Clash of Civilisations: Rethinking the Muslim Other".
Raihan has been the co-convenor (2015-2018) and convenor (2019-2020) of the Political Islam seminar series for various Commonwealth government agencies, including AGD and Defence. She is a regular commentator in Australian and international media on Islam and Middle East politics and appeared as a panelist on the ABC's Q&A program. In 2019, she was placed in the ABC’s Top 5 Media Residency Program for humanities scholars.
She has published in academic and non-academic outlets including the Washington Post. She is the author of Saudi Clerics and Shia Islam, published by Oxford University Press in 2016. Her latest book, Rethinking Salafism: The Transnational Networks of Salafi ‘Ulama in Egypt, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, was published by Oxford University Press in October 2021.
She has a Bachelors Degree in Political Science, with a minor in Islamic Studies, a Masters in International Relations from the International Islamic University of Malaysia, and a PhD from the ANU.
Researcher's projects
a) Salafi movements
b) Cross-sectarian cooperation in Iraq
c) Religious authorities in Muslim societies
Publications
- Ismail, R 2021, Rethinking Salafism: The Transnational Networks of Salafi 'Ulama in Egypt, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia, Oxford University Press, United States.
- Ismail, R 2019, 'Reclaiming Saudi Salafism: The Saudi Religious Circles and the Threat of ISIS ', Journal of Arabian Studies, vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 164-181.
- Ismail, R 2016, Saudi Clerics and Shi'a Islam, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
- Ismail, R 2016, 'The Saudi 'ulama and the Syrian Civil War', in Amin Saikal (ed.), The Arab World and Iran: A turbulent region in transition, Palgrave Macmillan, New York, pp. pp 83-102.
- Ismail, R 2017, 'Saudi Ulama, Guardians of Change', Oasis: Christians and Muslims in the Global World, vol. 13, no. 25, pp. online.
- Ismail, R 2014, 'Contesting Political Islam in Egypt', in Adel Abdel Ghafar, Brenton Clark and Jessie Moritz (ed.), The Contemporary Middle East: Revolution or Reform?, Melbourne University Press (an imprint of Melbourne University Publishing), Carlton, Vic, pp. 89-109.
- Ismail, R 2012, 'The Saudi Ulema and the Shi'a of Saudi Arabia', Journal of Shi'a Islamic Studies, vol. 5, no. 4, pp. 403-422.
Projects and Grants
Grants information is drawn from ARIES. To add or update Projects or Grants information please contact your College Research Office.
- Transnational Networks of Salafi Clerics: Contestation and Cooperation (Primary Investigator)
