Soas University of London has been a fixture in London’s Bloomsbury for more than 100 years. The elegant brick building was formerly known as the School of Oriental and African Studies, and had been a training ground for Britain’s colonial administrators. Now, however, it has developed a reputation for supporting the unorthodox and offering courses that question the status quo in the study of Asia, Africa and the Middle East.
According to Tom Tanner, director of the university’s Centre for Development, Environment and Policy, the aim is to “break away from the western-centred view that we see on the news, that tends to pigeonhole and stigmatise certain countries”.
