Akil N. Awan


Akil N Awan is a British academic and the current RCUK Fellow in the 'Contemporary History of Faith, Power and Terror' and Lecturer in both International Terrorism and Contemporary Islam in the Department of History and the Department of Politics and International Relations, at Royal Holloway, University of London. He is also a current Research Associate both with the Centre for Ethnic Minority Studies, and with the New Political Communication Unit at Royal Holloway. Previously he has served as a Research Associate on the ESRC project Shifting Securities: News Cultures Before and Beyond the Iraq War.

Research interests & expertise

His key research interests at present are focused around:
Aside from being awarded the prestigious Research Councils UK Fellowship in 2006, he is also the current co-holder of a major ESRC & FCO research grant on 'Legitimising the discourses of radicalisation: Political violence in the new media ecology' under the New Security Challenges: Radicalisation & Violence programme.
He is a member of the War and Media Academic Network, the European Consortium for Political research Standing Group on Internet & Politics, and of the
Akil Awan is regularly consulted by government bodies, other organisations, and the media in his fields of expertise, and has served in an advisory capacity and on numerous Working Groups for The Home Office, RICU, The Foreign & Commonwealth Office, the Office for Security & Counter Terrorism, Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre, Wilton Park, the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation, International Institute of Strategic Studies & the Insurgency Research Group. He is also a regular commentator to the Media and his research has appeared in Dispatches, The Birmingham Post, The Western Mail, The Economist, the LA Times, Reuters, FOCUS, The Boston Globe, China Post, MSNBC, Sydney Morning Herald, BBC World Service, and Dawn.

Recent Publications

He is currently working on three books on:
He is also working on a documentary on 'The History of al-Qaeda', to be released in 2011.