Richard Schofield
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Biography
After studying geography and the Middle East at the School of Oriental and African Studies and the University of Durham in the early 1980s, Richard Schofield spent a couple of years running an oriental bookshop in London and writing up his masters thesis on the Shatt al Arab dispute for publication. Thereafter, as a Senior Research Assistant in Durham University’s Geography Department, he collaborated with Dr. Gerald Blake in a major archival research project on Arabian Boundaries, the success of which allowed for the institution of Durham’s International Boundaries Research Unit in 1989.
Following his well-received book on Kuwait-Iraq disputes, Richard then joined the SOAS geography department part-time as a Research Fellow, acting as Deputy Director of its active Geopolitics Research Centre. Most of his other time was spent in dusty government archives, either compiling extensive published collections of documentary materials on Middle Eastern boundary questions or working professionally in ongoing boundary cases in International Law.
Following the launch of SOAS’s MA programme in International Boundary Studies in 1997, Richard Schofield took up a lecturing post in the Geography Department to convene the programme. A year earlier he had founded the triannual journal, Geopolitics (formerly Geopolitics and international Boundaries), published today by Taylor and Francis but originally by Frank Cass. He and the International Boundary Studies masters programme made the short hop down to the Strand in 2001 with the merger of the SOAS and King’s geography departments.
Richard edited Arabian Boundaries 1966-1971, recently published by the Cambridge University Press. The product of a four-year research effort, it covers in vivid detail the most tumultuous decade in the territorial evolution of the Arabian peninsular states, one that was dominated by Britain’s departure as protecting power from the region in the 1967-71 period. Further information can be found on the department news pages.
Following his well-received book on Kuwait-Iraq disputes, Richard then joined the SOAS geography department part-time as a Research Fellow, acting as Deputy Director of its active Geopolitics Research Centre. Most of his other time was spent in dusty government archives, either compiling extensive published collections of documentary materials on Middle Eastern boundary questions or working professionally in ongoing boundary cases in International Law.
Following the launch of SOAS’s MA programme in International Boundary Studies in 1997, Richard Schofield took up a lecturing post in the Geography Department to convene the programme. A year earlier he had founded the triannual journal, Geopolitics (formerly Geopolitics and international Boundaries), published today by Taylor and Francis but originally by Frank Cass. He and the International Boundary Studies masters programme made the short hop down to the Strand in 2001 with the merger of the SOAS and King’s geography departments.
Richard edited Arabian Boundaries 1966-1971, recently published by the Cambridge University Press. The product of a four-year research effort, it covers in vivid detail the most tumultuous decade in the territorial evolution of the Arabian peninsular states, one that was dominated by Britain’s departure as protecting power from the region in the 1967-71 period. Further information can be found on the department news pages.
