Dr Gurdofarid Miskinzoda

Dr Miskinzoda’s academic background is in the fields of the history of the Near and Middle East and of Islam, Islamic Studies, philology and the study of Arabic and Persian literatures.

She holds a BA, Distinction (1998) and MA, Distinction (2000) in Oriental and African Studies with the focus on Arabic and Persian studies from the Institute of Asian and African Countries of Moscow State University named after Lomonosov, Russia.

Having completed her doctoral studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in 2007, with a dissertation on medieval accounts of the Prophet Muhammad’s life, Dr Miskinzoda joined the Institute of Ismaili Studies as a Research Associate. Most recently in 2019, Dr Miskinzoda completed an MBA in Higher Education Management at the IOE, UCL.

Dr Miskinzoda has been teaching extensively since 2004 first at SOAS, University of London on both undergraduate and postgraduate levels, and then, at the IIS on postgraduate level. Currently she teaches on both GPISH and STEP.

Since joining the IIS in 2007, Dr Miskinzoda has served as the Scholarships Coordinator in DARP (2008–2011) and Shiʿi Studies Coordinator (2008–2014), and is currently the Managing Editor of the Shiʿi Heritage Series. She has also worked as a consultant to the Civil Society Director of the AKDN and to the Humanitarian Futures Programme (HFP), King’s College (University of London).