Ms Alessandra Cecolin

Academic qualifications

BA Letters and Philosophy, University of Bologna, Italy, 2005
MA Middle Eastern Studies and Arabic, SOAS, University of London, 2006
PhD Candidate Iranian-Jewish Identity, SOAS, University of London
Thesis: Mapping a Cultural Identity into a nationalistic discourse: a comparison of Iranian Jewish migration between 1951 and post 1979.

Teaching

First year
HT51019A Religion Peace and Conflict

Second and third year
HT52104B/HT53104B Medieval Islamic Empires

Grants & awards

2008

• SOAS Additional Award for Fieldwork
• University of London, Central Research Fund, Fieldwork Grant
• British Friends of the Hebrew University, Research Grant
• Council for British Reseach in the Levant (CBRL), Research Grant

Papers presented

• 'Has Zionism suffocated Iranian cultural identity? The condition of Iranian Jewish immigrants in Israel between 1951 and 1979'. Paper presented at the 19th Annual ASEN Conference, London School of Economics, London, 2009
• 'The Iranian Jewish migrations in Israel in 150 and post 1979'. Paper presented at University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, 2008
• 'The Discourse of Domestic and international policy of Iranian Zionism. Questioning the relationship between Iran and Israel'. Paper presented at the University of Exeter, Exeter, 2008
• 'Introduction to the history of the Jews of Iran'. Paper presented at Spiro Ark Foundation in London, 2007

Research interests

Political history and diplomatic strategies that characterized sixty-year relationship between Iran and Israel; wider conflict between national and religious identity for Jewish minorities living in Middle East; Islamic and Judaic shared history in Middle East, history of political Zionism; absorption of Middle Eastern Jewish minorities in Israel.

Selected publications

• Non Solo Sakineh, A morte il re dei Blog. Il Fatto Quotidiano Newspaper, 24 settembre, 2010, p.13.
• Mapping a cultural identity into a nationalistic discourse: a comparison of Iranian Jewish migrations in Israel in 1950 and 1979. Bulletin of the Council for British Research in the Levant No.4, 2009, pp. 84-85.