Club Advisors and Senior Members

Professor William Beinart

Professor William Beinart is Rhodes Professor of Race Relations (1997 – present) at the University of Oxford. The position was established in 1953 to research and teach on race relations with special reference to southern Africa. Prior to this, he worked in the Department of Historical Studies at the University of Bristol, and was co-editor of the Journal of Southern African Studies and chair of its editorial board.

He was the founding Director of the African Studies Centre at Oxford (2002-2006), and co-chair of the School of Interdisciplinary Area Studies (2006-2008). He was President of the African Studies Association of the United Kingdom (2008-2010) and is currently Director of Graduate Studies at the African Studies Centre, Oxford.

Dato’ Dr Afifi al-Akiti

Dato’ Dr Afifi al-Akiti is a Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences (KFAS) Fellow in Islamic Studies at the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies. He is also a lecturer in Islamic Studies at the Faculty of Theology, Oxford and is a fellow of Worcester College.

He was listed in the 2010 edition of The 500 Most Influential Muslims published by The Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre. In the same year, he was appointed Privy Councillor to the state of Perak, Malaysia by its Crown Prince, His Royal Highness Raja Dr Nazrin Shah. The following year, he was conferred the Darjah Paduka Mahkota Perak, the Malaysian equivalent to the British CBE.