Fellow
Dr Narmin Ismayilova is a visiting research fellow at Oxford Nizami Ganjavi Centre, Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Oxford. She completed her PhD in Archaeology at the University of Birmingham. Her research project aims at the social, cultural, and religious identity and diversity within Kura-Araxes Culture communities in the Caucasus during the Early Bronze Age (3500-2500 BC). Adopting various approaches and frameworks, Dr Ismayilova intends to change the perception of the Bronze Age in the Caucasus, particularly in her homeland, Azerbaijan.
As an indigenous Caucasian scholar, Dr Ismayilova wants to positively impact the region through dialogue and shared cross-border projects, building strong collaborations between scholars from the UK and the Caucasus. She has a long-standing experience in public engagement and cultural heritage projects in the UK. She founded and co-chairs The Caucasus Through Time network, the first UK-based initiative to connect scholars working on the archaeology, anthropology, history, and ethnography in the Caucasus and neighbouring regions.
As a native Azerbaijani speaker, with acquired language skills in Turkish, Persian, and Russian, and with access to primary sources, Dr Ismayilova is in a privileged position to explore the archaeology of a region that has been fragmented due to political, academic, and language barriers. She is engaged in Anthropological Archaeology, Archaeological Theory, Nationalistic trends in archaeology of the South Caucasus, Landscapes, Objects and Assemblages. Her research interests lie in cross-cultural comparison of the Caucasus with adjacent regions, particularly Iran.