ProfessorBenjamin Isakhan

Benjamin Isakhan is Australian Research Council Future Fellow in the Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation and Professor of International Politics in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Deakin University, Australia.

Ben is also Adjunct Senior Research Associate, Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa and Consulting Scholar at the Penn Cultural Heritage Centre at the University of Pennsylvania in the US.

From 2016-2024, Ben was Founding Director of Polis, a research network for Political Science and International Relations scholars at Deakin University. 

Previously, Ben was Australian Research Council (DECRA) Senior Research Fellow at the Deakin Institute, Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the National Centre of Excellence for Islamic Studies at Griffith University, and Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Centre for Dialogue at La Trobe University. 

Ben has held Visiting Research Fellowships at Stanford University, Oxford University, University of Pennsylvania, University of Exeter, University of Chicago, Newcastle University, the American University of Beirut and the University of Jordan.

Ben is the author of Democracy in Iraq: History, Politics, Discourse (Routledge, 2016) and the editor of 6 books including, The Secret History of Democracy (Palgrave, 2012 - translated into Arabic and Japanese) and The Legacy of Iraq: From the 2003 War to the Islamic State (Edinburgh University Press, 2016).

Ben has also published over 45 articles in esteemed international journals across his core fields of research expertise: Political Science and International Relations (International Affairs, Political Studies, European Journal of International Relations), Middle East Studies (Middle East Journal, British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, Middle East Policy) and Heritage Studies (Journal of Social Archaeology, International Journal of Heritage Studies, International Journal of Cultural Policy).

In addition, Ben has authored over 35 scholarly book chapters and delivered around 150 keynotes lectures, refereed conference papers and seminar presentations including those in prestigious institutions across the world. 

Ben has also written reports for, or been consulted by, many significant multilateral institutions and government departments, including: UNHRC, UNESCO, UNRWA, UNDP, UNW, OHCHR, the UN Special Rapporteur in the field of Cultural Rights, the UN Independent Commission of Inquiry on Syria, the Commission for International Justice and Accountability, the US Department of Justice, the Law Library of Congress (US), the Ministry of Defence (UK) and, in Australia, the Department of Defence, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and the Federal Police, to name a few.   

Ben has also won various awards and grants, including receiving more than A$5m in research funding. Highlights include: funding from the Australian Research Council (ARC) for a Future Fellowship entitled 'Heritage and Displacement: Intersections of Exile, Culture and Conflict'; being a Partner Investigator on a United Kingdom Research and Innovation (UKRI) funded project, 'Reconfiguring Heritage: Present Engagements with Communities' Past for Resilient Futures'; further funding from the ARC (Discovery) for the project 'After Islamic State: Local-State-Global Heritage Dynamics in Syria and Iraq'; a grant from the Australian Department of Defence for the project 'Measuring Cultural Property Destruction in Iraq and Syria'; and being an ARC (DECRA) Senior Research Fellow on the project 'Measuring the Destruction of Heritage and Spikes of Violence in Iraq'.

In both 2021 and 2023, Ben was named Australia’s Research Field Leader in Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies in The Australian’s annual ‘Research Report’. In 2021, Ben was awarded the Research Leadership and Mentoring Award from the Faculty of Arts and Education, and in 2020 he received a Special Commendation in the Academic Leadership in Political Science Award from the Australian Political Studies Association. In 2016 Ben was Highly Commended in the Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Research Partnerships, and in 2012 Ben was awarded the Vice-Chancellor's Award for Outstanding Contribution to Research: Early Career Researcher.

Ben has taught undergraduate and postgraduate courses in Political Science, International Relations and Middle East Studies and he has supervised several PhD students to successful and timely completions. He is a member of various professional and academic associations, and is regularly interviewed in the media.

For more details on Ben's work and a list of publications, see his profiles on Academia, ORCiD, Google Scholar, X and Linked-In.