Team

Core Team

	Professor Eleanor Robson, UCL Principal Investigator e.robson@ucl.ac.uk Eleanor is Professor of Ancient Middle Eastern History at UCL, with a particular focus on Iraq. She joined the university in 2013 from the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge (2004-13) and the Faculty of Oriental Studies at the University of Oxford (1995-2003). She served as Chair of the British Institute for the Study of Iraq (2012–17) and was elected as a Fellow of the British Academy in 2022. She was Head of UCL's History Department from 2018 to 2023. Eleanor's research has three main focal points: the social and political contexts of knowledge production in the cuneiform culture of ancient Iraq, five to two thousand years ago; the construction of knowledge about ancient Iraq in Europe, the Americas, and the Middle East over the past two centuries; and use of open, standards-based online resources for democratising access to knowledge about the ancient Middle East. In her capacity as DIrector of the Nahrein Network project, Eleanor has overall responsibility for the Network, overseeing expansion, ethics, and risk. She also leads on ancient history, languages, and digital humanities. Eleanor's webpage at UCL Podcast interview with Eleanor
	Dr Mehiyar Kathem, UCL Deputy Director and Senior Researcher m.kathem@ucl.ac.uk Dr Mehiyar Kathem is the Nahrein Network Deputy Director. As part of his role, Mehiyar supervises all the network’s programmes, including Research Grants, Visiting Scholarships and Graduate Studentships. He is also Programme Lead for AcademIQ, a multi-year programme designed to support Iraqi researchers in the arts, humanities and social sciences with academic skills development. He also assists Iraqi academics and professionals during their stay in the UK. His role includes developing partnerships and communication with Iraqi Government institutions, domestic NGOs and academics. Mehiyar completed a PhD at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) where he researched peacebuilding interventions and the formation of Iraq's domestic NGO sector after the 2003 War. During this research, he looked at the gradual evolution of Iraq from totalitarian dictatorship through the country's emerging domestic organisations. His research interests include statebuilding, civil society peacebuilding and the ways in which development, politics and money interact at a local level. In 2012 and 2013, Mehiyar conducted field research in Iraq for his PhD programme, spending a year meeting with and interviewing domestic NGO actors, political parties, government officials and international donors. He tweets at @mehiyar and blogs on mehiyar.com. Podcast interview with Mehiyar
	Dr Misha Enayat Project Administrator nahrein@ucl.ac.uk Misha is the Nahrein Project Administrator. One of her main roles is to act as the single point of contact for your inquiries over email, as well as for applications to the Network's Grants, Visiting Scholarship Scheme and Graduate Studentship and any resulting reports. Misha also supports the core team in putting in place any needed contracts, making payments and general day-to-day administrative assistance. Misha’s doctoral research, undertaken at the University of Southampton, explored food practices and their sociopolitical significance in pre-Roman Iron Age Britain. Her research interests include food histories, the material culture of consumption, and archaeologies of colonialism and identity. She has previously held other administrative roles within UCL’s History Department and served as Network Administrator on the Leverhulme-funded Reimagining Italianità international research network.
	Zainab Mahdi Communications and Social Media Officer m.zainab@ucl.ac.uk Zainab is the Communications and Social Media Officer to The Nahrein Network. She looks after all the network’s communications, including the network’s website, newsletters and social media platforms, in addition to organizing events.