Zoe Waxman and Michael Willis receive the title of Full Professor in Recognition of Distinction Awards

Two academics from the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies have been granted the full Professorial title at the University of Oxford. This was part of the recent round of Recognition of Distinction Awards, where the title of professor is awarded to those who have made contributions to leadership, teaching and research within the University and within their affiliated department and/or colleges. 

• Dr Michael J. Willis has been awarded the title of Professor of North African Politics. He is the King Mohammed VI Fellow in Moroccan and Mediterranean Studies at St Antony’s College. He studied at the University of Reading, the London School of Economics and received his PhD from the University of Durham. He is the author of Algeria: Politics and Society from the Dark Decade to the Hirak (Hurst, 2022); Politics and Power in the Maghreb: Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco from Independence to the Arab Spring (Hurst and Oxford University Press, 2012) and The Islamist Challenge in Algeria: A Political History (Ithaca and New York University Press, 1997). Prior to joining Oxford he taught politics at Al Akhawayn University in Ifrane, Morocco for seven years.
• Dr. Zoe Waxman has been awarded the title of Professor of Holocaust History. She is a senior research fellow at the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies. She was educated at the universities of York, Warwick, and Oxford and was previously lecturer in history at Mansfield College, Oxford and then lecturer and fellow in Holocaust Studies at Royal Holloway, University of London. She has published widely on gender, genocide, and the history of ideas. Her most recent book was Women in the Holocaust: A Feminist History (2017). Her next book will be Motherhood: A Holocaust History.

The Faculty Board Chair, David Rechter, adds: 'Many congratulations to our colleagues. It is gratifying to see our distinguished mid-career academics being recognised for their contributions to the university and to their fields of research.'