Dr Rian Thum
Dr Rian Thum, Senior Research Fellow in the Department of History, has been awarded the 2020 Philip Leverhulme Prize for his research
Philip Leverhulme Prizes have been awarded annually since 2001 in commemoration of the contribution to the work of the Trust made by Philip Leverhulme, the Third Viscount Leverhulme and grandson of William Hesketh Lever, the founder of the Trust. The prizes recognise the achievement of outstanding researchers whose work has already attracted international recognition and whose future career is exceptionally promising.
In 2020 the Trust offered five prizes in each of the following subject areas: Biological Sciences; History; Law; Mathematics and Statistics; Philosophy and Theology; Sociology and Social Policy.
Dr Thum has been awarded £100,000 which can be used over two or three years to advance his research.
Rian Thum's research and teaching are generally concerned with the overlap of China and the Muslim World. He writes on Islamic China in a re-examination of Chinese Islam that takes full account of the numerous Persian and Arabic sources that Chinese Muslims have used and written. It re-evaluates Chinese-language Islamic traditions in light of their multilingual contexts and uncovers the role of Persianate Islamic networks in binding China and India together over the last 400 years. More generally, his research interests include historical anthropology, mobility, orality and writing, historiography, the history of money, and the place of non-Han peoples in China.
Posted on Tuesday 3rd November 2020