“And say, ‘My Lord, increase me in knowledge.'”
(Quran 20:114)
AMI Doctoral Scholarship
Supporting innovative doctoral research in Imāmī Shīʿism that bridges seminary traditions and contemporary scholarship.
About the Scholarship
Al‑Mahdi Institute’s Doctoral Scholarship supports talented students working on the study of Imāmī (Twelver) Shīʿism. Despite being one of the largest minority denominations within Islam, Imāmī Shīʿism remains a relatively underexplored field in academia. The aim of the scholarship is therefore to promote and encourage sustained academic research on Imāmī thought and practice, advancing AMI’s broader mission of bringing the intellectual traditions of the ḥawza into conversation with the critical approaches of modern scholarship.
The award provides up to £3,000 towards doctoral research expenses. In addition to financial assistance, successful applicants are welcomed into AMI’s academic community, with opportunities to engage with faculty, attend seminars, workshops, and conferences, and benefit from an environment that fosters dialogue between traditional Islamic learning and contemporary academic inquiry.
The scholarship is open to students of all nationalities who have been successfully admitted to a doctoral programme at universities in the United Kingdom, Europe, North America, or Australasia and are writing their thesis in the English language. Applicants must have successfully completed the first year of their doctoral programme at the time of application to be eligible for the scholarship.
Research Areas of Interest
We welcome applications from students working on the following fields of research:
- Imāmī Shīʿī theology
- Imāmī Shīʿī law and legal theory
- Imāmī Shīʿī exegeses of the Qur’an
- Imāmī Shīʿī Hadith studies
- Imāmī Shīʿī engagements with Qur’anic studies
- Imāmī Shīʿī engagements with ethics
- Imāmī Shīʿī engagements with philosophy
- Imāmī Shīʿī engagements with mysticism (Sufism)
- Studies concerning the life and thought of the Prophet, the twelve Imāms, and other members of the ahl al-bayt; particularly that of women (such as Khadīja, Fāṭima, and Zaynab, amongst others)
- Studies related to the life and thought of the Companions of the Prophet and Imāms who advocated the centrality of the ahl al-bayt in their theological and political positions (such as Salmān, Abū Dharr al-Ghifārī, Hishām b. al-Ḥakam, Zurāra b. Aʿyan et al)
- Intellectual history of Imāmī Shīʿī thought
- Imāmī Shīʿī thought across different time periods and regions (Baghdad, Ḥilla, Qum, Jabal ʿĀmil, Iṣfahan, Najaf, Karbala, Lucknow, etc)
- Diversity in Imāmī Shīʿī thought
- Imāmī Shīʿī liturgical sources and thought
- Contribution of Imāmī Shī
However, topics which fall outside the scope of these specified topics may still be considered at the discretion of the committee, providing they are still related to the study of Imāmī Shīʿism.
Application Process
The fourth round of applications for the Doctoral Scholarship are now open. Applications are reviewed annually, and the process is designed to ensure fair and thorough consideration.
- The deadline for applications is 28th February 2026.
- Applications shall be assessed by the committee throughout March 2026. During this process, the committee may request interviews with applicants.
- Acceptance and rejection letters shall be sent out in the second week of April 2026.
- Applicants must confirm their continuation on their doctoral programme by August 2026.
- The Scholarship shall be paid directly to the student in the first week after the commencement of their programme.
How to Apply
To apply, please click on the Apply Now button below to complete the online application form and submit the following documents to [email protected]:
- A tailored CV (1–2 pages) detailing your qualifications and work experience.
- A research proposal (2-3 pages) outlining the project you intend to work on.
- A personal statement (up to 500 words) explaining how you would like your career to develop over the next ten years, and how the AMI Doctoral Scholarship will support this.
To be eligible for the scholarship, applicants must have successfully completed the first year of their PhD programme and intend to conduct research within the specified research areas outlined above.
Previous Awardees
Meet past recipients of the AMI Doctoral Scholarship and explore the diverse research projects they have undertaken.
Adam Ramadhan is a PhD candidate at Leiden University working on the social and intellectual history of early Shiʿi Islam as part of the ERC Starting Grant funded project Embodied Imamate: Mapping the Development of the Early Shiʿi Community 700-900 CE. Adam first read for a BA in Arabic and Islamic Studies at the University of Leeds, graduating with first-class honours and several prizes. He then spent several years in the Shiʿi seminary (ḥawza) at Al-Mahdi Institute where he was trained in the deep and critical reading of classical Arabic texts across a range of disciplines. During this time, he also completed an MSt in Islamic Studies and History at the University of Oxford. As part of the Embodied Imamate project, Adam works on the networks of associates of the Shiʿi Imams. He is interested in the role these individuals had on the emergence and functioning of the institution of the Imamate, and what the diversity of these networks can tell us about the demarcation of communal boundaries in early Islam.
Adam RamadhanPhD candidate, Leiden University 
Faezeh Izadi is a Ph.D. candidate and a Sessional Instructor in Religious Studies at the University of Calgary. Her research interests include Shia intellectual history, philanthropic studies, and new religious movements. Her ongoing doctoral dissertation investigates the effectiveness of Imāmī Shīʿī charitable practices from an ethical perspective, specifically through a dialogue with the principles of the Effective Altruism (EA) philosophy and social movement. The study aims to demonstrate how EA's rational approaches can inform and enhance the effectiveness of Shia philanthropy, while also offering a critical assessment of EA's predominantly utilitarian framework and arguing for a more comprehensive inclusion of the moral, communal, and cultural dimensions central to religious giving.
Faezeh IzadiPhD candidate, University of Calgary 
Omid Hadian Bersiani is a scholar and educator specializing in comparative philosophy and religious studies, with a focus on the intersection of Islamic and Western thought—particularly in relation to self-knowledge and contemporary psychology. He holds bachelor’s degrees in English and Islamic Law, as well as master’s degrees in Shia Theology and Religious Studies. His recent academic work at the University of Erfurt in Germany explores the parallels between Mulla Sadra and Carl Jung on the subject of self-knowledge. He has taught Greek and Islamic philosophy, Arabic literature, and English at various institutions in Isfahan, Iran.
Omid Hadian BersianiPhD candidate, University of Erfurt 
Sarah Aziz is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at Harvard University. Her fields of interest include Classical Arabic literature, Islamic intellectual history, Shiism, and Sufism. For her dissertation, Sarah is focusing on al-Ṣaḥīfa al-Sajjādiyya (The Scroll of al-Sajjād), the prayer manual attributed to ʿAlī Zayn al-ʿĀbidīn (d. 712), which is arguably the earliest prayer manual in Islamic sources and one of the earliest examples of the Arabic-Islamic genre of prayer composed in ornate rhymed prose. Investigating the Ṣaḥīfa’s textual tradition, content, literary features, and reception, Sarah’s study breaks new ground in our understanding of the text’s literary and intellectual significance and overall function.
Sarah AzizDoctoral candidate, Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University 
Amir Mohammad Emami is a PhD candidate in Arab and Islamic Studies at the University of Exeter. His research interests include the intellectual history of the Islamic world, particularly within the landscapes of Iran since the 17th century, and the intersections of Islamic scholarly disciplines of falsafa, kalām, and uṣūl al-fiqh with contemporary philosophy. He is currently working on a PhD thesis on the philosophical ideas of Mīrzā Mahdī Iṣfahānī (d. 1365/1946), the founder of the theological school of Maktab-i Maʿārif, also known as the Maktab-i Tafkīk (the School of Separation).
Amir Mohammad EmamiPhD candidate, Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter 
Mehdi Ali is a PhD candidate in the Department of Religion at University of Southern California, where he is completing his dissertation under the supervision of Dr. Sherman Jackson. Mehdi’s research focuses on Islamic legal and exegetical discourses using primary source materials in Arabic, Persian, Turkish, and Urdu. His research focuses on developing a deeper understanding of the evolution of scriptural hermeneutics with respect to legal matters by examining law-focused, or fiqhi Quranic commentaries written by Imami scholars in the classical period.
Mehdi AliPhD candidate, Department of Religion, University of Southern California 
Mohammad Nabeel Jafri is a PhD candidate at the Department for the Study of Religion at the University of Toronto, and a Visiting Faculty at the Department of Social Sciences and Liberal Arts at the Institute of Business Administration, Karachi. His dissertation, “Orating Knowledge: Urdu Shiʿi khiṭābat in contemporary Karachi,” builds on twenty months of ethnographic fieldwork in Karachi, Pakistan. “Orating Knowledge” examines the myriad emic contestations around both ʿilm and oratory, attending to debates prevalent among orators and their audiences.
Mohammad Nabeel JafriPhD candidate, Department for the Study of Religion, University of Toronto; Visiting Faculty, IBA Karachi 
Zahra Jafari is currently pursuing a PhD at the University of Exeter in Arab and Islamic Studies. Her academic focus has been directed towards Shīʿī studies, ḥadīth and legal theory. Her ongoing doctoral research centres around treating ḥadīth contradictions by means of dissimulation (taqiyya) in Shīʿī ḥadīth literature, specifically in the works of the Akhbārī scholar Shaykh Yūsuf b. Aḥmad al-Baḥrānī (d. 1186/1772).
Zahra JafariPhD candidate, Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter 
Apply Now for the Doctoral Scholarship!
Ready to take your academic journey further? Apply for our Doctoral Scholarship to advance your research in Islamic Studies and make a real impact.