About
Marouf Cabi is a Visiting Fellow at the LSE Middle East Centre. He obtained his PhD in History from the University of St Andrews in 2019. His research focuses on the social and cultural histories of modern Iran and Kurdistan, particularly since the Second World War, and modern historiography.
He is the author of two books, The Formation of Modern Kurdish Society in Iran (2022) and Iranian Kurdistan under the Islamic Republic (2025), and several book chapters on the Kurdish women’s movement during the 1979 Revolution, cross-border trade, and the question of Kurdistan and political sovereignty. His work has appeared in Middle Eastern Studies, Middle East Critique, and the British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies. He taught Middle Eastern history at the University of St Andrews for several years before joining the Middle East Centre as a Visiting Fellow in 2022.
He is a fellow of the Royal Historical Society and will start a joint research project as a visiting Associate Professor at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies (TUFS) in September 2026. He is currently working on a British Academy–funded project on the emergence of minoritised historical writing in the twentieth century, with a particular focus on modern Kurdish historiography.
Expertise
International history; modern Iran; Kurdish society in Iran; social, cultural and political movements; and modern historiography.
Research
Current Research:
The Emergence of Modern Kurdish National Historiography (funded by the British Academy).
Teaching
Past teaching roles:
Armed struggle and political movements in the Middle East’, Peace and Conflict Studies, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies.
Introduction to the Middle Eastern History Module, School of History, University of St Andrews.
Middle Eastern Literary & Cultural Contexts, School of Modern Languages, University of St Andrews.