Farish A. Noor


Farish Ahmad Noor is a political scientist and historian and is Associate Professor at the Rajaratnam School of International Studies as well as the School of Humanities' Department of History at the Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.
He was formerly attached to Zentrum Moderner Orient in Berlin, Germany, Sciences-Po Paris, the Institute for the Study of Muslim Society, Paris and the International Institute for the Study of the Muslim World, Leiden, Netherlands.
He received his BA in Philosophy & Literature from the University of Sussex in 1989, before studying for an MA in Philosophy at the same University in 1990, an MA in South-East Asian Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, before completing his PhD at the University of Essex in 1997 in the field of governance and politics.
His main area of research has been Southeast Asia in the 19th century. Over the past ten years he has also been researching the phenomenon of transnational and translocal religio-political movements, including missionary movements such as the Tablighi Jama'at and its networks from South to Southeast Asia; as well as the development of religio-politics in South and Southeast Asia, looking at the rise of Muslim, Christian and Hindu political-religious revivalism in particular.
His other interests include antiques and material history, and he has written about the plastic arts of Southeast Asia, focusing on things such as the Indonesian-Malaysian keris to the development of woodcarving and architecture.
Dr Noor has also written and hosted several documentary series on Channel NewsAsia including 'Our Southeast Asia', 'Inside Indonesia with Dr Farish', 'Across Borders' and 'Inventing Southeast Asia'.

Publications