School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics

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Roles: Near and Middle East Section PhD Researcher
Department: School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics
Qualifications: MA (UK)
EMJM (DK, DE)
Subject: Near and Middle East
Email address: 704732@soas.ac.uk
Thesis title: Charities in the Qurʾān and aḥādīth, and charitable work in multicultural societies
Internal Supervisors: Professor Muhammad A S Abdel Haleem, OBE & Dr Mustafa Shah

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Muhammad Nabil currently researches contemporary institutional praxis of British Muslim charities in a multicultural and cosmopolitan society (i.e., the UK), and the similitudes and innovativeness of charitable endeavours in contrast to canons and generations of Islamic traditions.

His research explores linguistic dimensions of charitable impetus in canons, and their macro- and micro-impact on the charitable practices of generations of faith societies that contributed to social welfare and development across faiths, traditions and cultures. The research combines qualitative methodologies including linguistic analyses, historical research methods and semi-structured interviews.

Earlier, Nabil studied languages, linguistics and media communication, most recently as an Erasmus Mundus scholar across different cultures. He also graduated with a first-class multi-year diploma in Arabic from a modern language institute. He has trained in social science research methodologies including qualitative methods. Following formative training in communications, mainly as a research communication specialist, he worked for over a decade with a photo-media archive and news agencies, wrote on contemporary affairs for a national daily, worked at a public policy think-tank and research institutes based in the global South, and at a multilateral development bank – institutions that are known for their public service and humanitarian ethos. Insights from these experiences, with second language learning as a mid-career professional, formed the pretext of the research at SOAS. He also interned at a UK academic publisher and worked at a higher education institution. Some of his current and previous research were accepted for presentation in Westminster, Coventry, Warwick, Cambridge, Cardiff, and Hamburg (Germany).

Nabil volunteered for over eleven years with a social movement organisation, a corpus linguistics project, a community work charity, and continues to volunteer in an archival research project. His research interests include humanitarian interventions, charitable and voluntary work; social welfare, development and philanthropic movements; Arabic as a second language, and media representation of ethnic cultures.