Elvire Corboz

Elvire Corboz holds a D.Phil in Oriental Studies from the University of Oxford (2010). Previously, she obtained an M.Phil in Modern Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Oxford and a Licence ès Lettres in Musicology and Arabic from the University of Geneva. Her doctoral thesis, supervised by Prof. James Piscatori,looked into the transnational dimension of two Shi‘i religious families, al-Hakim and al-Khu’i, to analyse the effects of cross-border relations on the access to and exercise of clerical authority. She has experience working with Persian and Arabic sources and conducted field research in Iran and several Arab countries. 

At the CCDP, Elvire coordinated the Swiss-Egyptian NGO Dialogue and the Islamic Charities Project within the framework of the ‘Religion and Politics’ programme for the year 2010-2011. She is now a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Department of Near Eastern Studies at the University of Princeton and a Research Fellow at the CCDP.  

• Transnational Shi‘ism
• Iraqi exile organisations
• Muslim politics and Islamic political movements
• Iraqi and Iranian history, politics, and society
• Muslim communities in Europe

• ‘The al-Khoei Foundation and the Transnational Institutionalisation of Ayatullah al-Khu’i’s Marja‘iyya’ in Lloyd Ridgeon (ed.), Shi‘i Islam and Identity: Religion,Politics and Change in the Global Muslim Community (I.B Tauris, 2011, forthcoming)
• ‘Between Action and Symbols: The Claims of the Supreme Assembly for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq to Political Leadership’ in Ricardo Bocco, Hamit Bozarslan, Peter Sluglett, and Jordi Tejel (eds), Writing the History of Iraq: Historiographical and Political Challenges (London: World Scientific and Imperial College Press, 2011,forthcoming).