After reading history at Cambridge, six months spent at a kibbutz in Israel led to an interest in the Middle East and in Islam and Islamic history and society, and I took an MA in Middle Eastern studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London. Then, switching from history to social anthropology, in the late 1970s I did some field research in a small town in northern Afghanistan. I was unable to spend as long there as I had hoped because of the Soviet occupation, but it was an unforgettable experience thanks to the hospitality of the people and the harsh beauty of the landscape.
Back in Britain I wrote an M.Phil. dissertation on the subject of Islamic shrines and pilgrimages in Iran and Afghanistan. Following this, while working for the Open University as an Associate Lecturer, I did archival research in the India Office archives in the British Library. This resulted in a doctoral thesis on British relations with the tribes of the North-West Frontier (Waziristan in particular) in the 19th and early 20th centuries, which included a discussion of the role of Islam and Islamic leaders (see publications).
In 2007 I joined the RS department and became Staff Tutor in the East of England regional office in Cambridge; currently I’m chair of the Open University course (AD252) Islam in the West The Politics of Coexistence. Course material I’ve written includes the Sikhism Study Guide for A217 Introducing Religions, an update chapter for AD317 Religion Today Tradition Modernity and Change , and contributions to the new Religious Studies MA.
At the moment I’m working on religious leadership and conflict on the North-West Frontier.
1984 ‘Effects of the Saur Revolution in the Nahrin Area of Northern Afghanistan’, in M. Nazif Shahrani and Robert L. Canfield (eds) Revolutions & Rebellions in Afghanistan Anthropological Perspectives, Berkeley, Institute of International Studies, University of California.
2002 Imperial Frontier Tribe and State in Waziristan, Routledge Curzon, London.
2003 ‘Etnicidad, nacionalismo y el Estado en Afghanistan’, in S. Devalle (ed) Identidad y etnicidad: continuidad y cambio, Mexico City: El Colegio de Mexico, pp.83-117.
See also Open Research Online for further details of Hugh Beattie’s research publications.
Dr Hugh Beattie
The Open University in the East of England
Cintra House
12 Hills Road
Cambridge
CB1 2RF
UK
Email: Hugh.Beattie@open.ac.uk
A Muslim shrine in Kabul. Photo by Hugh Beattie.
