Oxford Fellowship First for Oman

Melbourne Law School is thrilled to announce a remarkable achievement by one of its recent students. Omani national and former PhD candidate, Khalid Al-Azri, has been awarded a postdoctoral fellowship by Oxford University. The occasion is historic, for it is the first time an Omani has been awarded a fellowship by Oxford.

Mr Al-Azri has just completed his PhD, supervised by the Law School’s Professor Tim Lindsey and Professor Abdullah Saeed (Asia Institute, Arts Faculty), on the topic ‘Development, culture and the dilemma of equality in ‘modern’ Omani society: the practice of Kafa’a in marriage and Talaq ‘.

At Oxford, Mr Al-Azri will be based at the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies, where he will be part of a team of scholars researching a project on the Sultanate of Oman. The project will culminate in an authoritative and accessible history of Omani diplomacy, covering the most significant political, economic, social and cultural interactions of Omanis with people and nations throughout the world, and also diplomacy between Omanis in a domestic context.

Mr Al-Azri has praised ‘the high standards expected of students at Melbourne and the excellent supervision that I received during my study’ as ‘important factors in how I have developed as a scholar and acquired the skills necessary to prepare me for this achievement.’