Background

Key abilities: Social Anthropologist, Teaching, Research Design, Writing, Journal Editing, Higher Education Strategy, Higher Education Management

• • An anthropologist, with a PhD in Socio-Cultural Anthropology from the University of Oxford. 
• • 15 years’ experience of teaching, research, and supervision of postgraduate students in anthropology at the University of Oxford.
• • 18 years’ experience of teaching at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels at universities in Kabul, including the AUAF (see CV for courses taught).  
• • Experience of establishing and directing two new academic programmes of an international standard. 
• • Experience of fund-raising and management, alongside academic teaching and programme development. 
• • Experience in convening international academic conferences and events bringing together academics, policy makers, aid workers and others working on Afghanistan. 
• • Experience of establishing and editing journals.
• • Advisor in the public and private higher education sector of Afghanistan for 10 years.
• • Experience in macro-management and organizational development within the higher education sector. 

Education:

 

1987. 1992. 1987-1992 D.Phil. Social Anthropology, Linacre College, Oxford University, UK 

Thesis: ‘The Hazaras of Afghanistan’

1984-1987 B.A. Honours, School of Development Studies, University of East Anglia, UK

Dissertation: ‘Tribalism and State in Afghanistan’ 

Languages:

Fluent: Farsi (mother tongue), English.  Basic: Arabic.

Experience:

Academic

2022- 2025 Adjunct Professor, Afghanistan Studies, Allameh Tabatabyi’s University, Tehran, Iran.

2010-2021 Adjunct Professor, Political Sociology of Afghanistan, Islamic Azad University (Kabul branch), Kabul, Afghanistan. 

1997 – 2013 Senior Associate Member, Middle East Centre, St Antony’s College, University of Oxford, UK.

1997 – 2013 Founder & Director, Afghanistan Studies Programme, Middle East Centre, 

St. Antony’s College, Oxford University, UK

2013-2014 Lecturer, Anthropology, Sociology and Research Methodology, Payam-e Noor University (Kabul branch).

2012-2013 Lecturer, Afghanistan Studies, Dunya Institute of Higher Education, Kabul.

2012-2013 Lecturer, Anthropology, Rural and Urban Sociology, Gharjistan University, Kabul.

2007–2010 Professor, Introduction to Social Sciences, Sociology, History of Afghanistan, American University of Afghanistan, Kabul, Afghanistan.

2010-2011 Lecturer, Introduction to Anthropology, Kabul Education University, and University of Khatam al-Nabeyyen, Kabul.

2004-2005 Lecturer, Research Methodology, Kabul University, Kabul.

2005-2006 Lecturer, Social Anthropology, Kateb University, Kabul.

1997 – 1998 Consultant, Documentary on the Hazaras and Hazarajat, entitled Seen der Welt: Juwelen am Fusse des Hindukush, by the German film company, Sudwestfunk, Germany

1996 – 1997 Prepared the manuscript, ‘The Hazaras of Afghanistan’, for publication, Oxford, UK

1996 – 1996 Research Associate, Refugee Studies Centre, Queen Elizabeth House, Oxford University, UK

Other

2016 – 2021 Project Manager and team Leader, The EU Nutrition Project, at Kabul University of Medical Sciences and Ghazanfar Institute of Higher Education, Kabul.

 

2014 – 2015 Team Leader and Training Coordinator, (MSc, BSc programmes) Cowater International Inc., Herat, Afghanistan

2003 – 2013 Chief Advisor to the Minister for Higher Education,

Ministry of Higher Education, Kabul, Afghanistan

1992 – 1995 Editor, Wahdat News Bulletin (English) and Wahdat Newsletter (Persian), UK

1989 Consultant, United Nations Office for the Coordination of Aid to Afghanistan 

(UNOCA), Geneva, Switzerland

 

1986-1987 Visiting Research Fellow, Refugee Studies Programme, Queen Elizabeth House,

Oxford University, UK

Research:

 

2022 Ethno nationalism & Nation Building Failures in Afghanistan, Cambridge University, (Work in progress).

2013 Ethnicity, State and Order, Collection of lecture notes on the teaching of Anthropology in Afghanistan, to be published

1998 Afghanistan’s Folk Culture, research undertaken for the BBC World Service, UK

1992 – 1997 Translation and collection of articles on the Hazaras of Afghanistan, by international scholars

1989 – 1992 PhD thesis: The Hazaras of Afghanistan, Oxford University, UK

Field research for D.Phil thesis in Bamiyan, Afghanistan

1988 Field research for D.Phil thesis amongst the Hazaras of Quetta, Pakistan

Publications:

Books:

1998 The Hazaras of Afghanistan: An Historical, Cultural, Economic and Political Study, Curzon Press, London, UK. Translated and published in Persian and Japanese.

2021 Mohammad Asif Ahang, 2020, A History of Afghanistan, (edited. Vol.1), Vajah publication, Kabul.

2025 Mohammad Asif Ahang, 2020, A History of Afghanistan, (edited. Vol.2), (Work in progress).

Articles:

2009 ‘Out of Hazarajat: Unexplored Hazara Communities in Afghanistan’, in Afghanistan at the Crossroads: Past and Future, pp 90-114, Korean Association of Central Asian Studies, National Museum of Korea, Seoul

2002 ‘After September 11: Transnational News and Transnational Audiences’, Open University, in Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, pp 1041-1061, Vol. 32, Number 6, August 2006, Routledge, Sussex 

2000 ‘A Short Biography of Hussain Nayel’, in Critique & Vision, No. 12, Virginia

1997 ‘Abdul Qahhar-e Asi; Poem and Society’, in Taawoon, publication of the

  Cooperation Centre for Afghanistan (CCA), Vol. 4, No. 5, Peshawar

1994 ‘Divide and Rule’, in Wahdat News Bulletin, No. 13, London

1994 ‘Road to Peace’, in Wahdat News Bulletin, No. 11, London

1994 ‘In Search of Peace’, in Wahdat News Bulletin, No. 10, London

1994 ‘Afghanistan – Two Years On’, and ‘State Terrorism’, in Wahdat News Bulletin,

No. 9, London

1994 ‘Kabul under Fire’, in Wahdat News Bulletin, No.8, London

1993 ‘One Century of Defeat, One Century of Victory’: 1893-1993’, in Wahdat News Bulletin, No.7, London

1990 ‘In Response to Mr. Caplan’, in Nama-e Khorasan, USA

1989 Report from Bamiyan, for UNOCA, Geneva

1989 UNOCA Second Annual Report, Sections on the Hazarajat, United Nations, Geneva

1981 Introduction to Afghanistan at the Crossroads of History, by G. M. Ghobar, 

Payam-e Mohajir, Qom, Iran

Events Convened 

Afghanistan Studies Programme, Middle East Centre, St Antony’s, Oxford University, UK.

2003 Speech by Hamed Karzai, President of Afghanistan, accompanied by Ashraf Ghani, Hanif Atmar, Zalmai Rasool, Arif Noorzai, 

2003 Speech by Dr Lakhdar Brahimi, UN Special Envoy to Afghanistan

2002 Speech by Dr Abdullah Abdullah, Then Afghan Foreign Minister

2001 Speech by Dr Najibullah Lafraie, Former Afghan Foreign Minister

Conferences

2003 ‘Women in Post-Taliban Afghanistan’

2002 ‘Afghanistan in Transition’

2000 ‘Afghan Drugs: Local and Regional Impacts’

1999 ‘Afghanistan: The Crisis of Identity’

1997 ‘Continuity and Change; Afghanistan: 1747-1997’, Conference in commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the formation of Afghanistan, Middle East Centre, St. Anthony’s College, Oxford University, UK

Award: 1983 – 1990, British Council (ODA) Scholarship

Membership:

1998 – 2013 Senior Associate Member, Middle East Centre, St. Antony’s College, Oxford University

2003 – 2013 Member of Higher Education Council, Ministry of Higher Education, Kabul

2003 – 2013 Member of Leadership Committee, Ministry of Higher Education, Kabul

2006 – 2007 Member of Board of Trustees, American University of Afghanistan

2006 – 2007 Acting Chancellor, Bamiyan University, Bamiyan, Afghanistan

2010 – 2011 Acting Director, Private universities directorate, Ministry of higher education, Kabul Afghanistan.

1996Member: Middle East Association of North America, University of Arizona

1996Member, Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, London

1987Committee for the organization of the International Symposium on Afghanistan: 

‘The Crisis of Migration from Afghanistan: Domestic & Foreign Implications’,

Refugee Studies Programme, Oxford, 1987

Travel: Iran, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Pakistan, India, Switzerland, Germany, USA, Canada, Cyprus, South Korea, Thailand, Turkmenistan, Finland, the Netherlands, Tajikistan.