Riyaz Timol
What would you recommend about studying at the Islam-UK Centre?
Cardiff University’s Islam-UK Centre is a leading hub of national expertise on the topic of Islam and Muslims in Britain. Students benefit from the rigorous standards expected of a Russell Group university in addition to the in-house experience and expertise accumulated by staff over many years. The Centre also enjoys excellent relationships with other departments within the university allowing students to benefit from a broad range of multidisciplinary perspectives. In particular, the Centre’s focus on sociological and anthropological methodology should make it the location of choice for prospective doctoral students wanting to conduct qualitative research on any aspect of Muslims in Britain.
How are your Cardiff studies helping you develop your future career choice?
I’m now in the final year of my PhD and have felt myself become gradually socialised into the world of academia over the past couple of years. My regular supervision meetings have provided valuable insights into the mechanics of the PhD process and ensured that I’ve delivered on the key milestones of the journey to date. In addition, I’ve received encouragement and support to deliver on a number of ‘extra-curricular’ activities. These include book review/chapter/journal article publications, organising and hosting our own conference in Cardiff in September 2014, regularly delivering papers at other conferences around the country and teaching at both undergraduate and postgraduate level. I also helped deliver Cardiff University’s innovative online course Muslims in Britain: Changes and Challenges to over 5000 learners worldwide allowing me to gain the necessary experience to apply for accreditation with the Higher Education Authority. Collectively, I feel this all provides an excellent grounding for a long-term career in the emerging field of ‘British Muslim studies’, or more generally the sociology of religion.
What do you enjoy most about your research?
I love the relationships I’ve cultivated with fellow students and academics both around the country and in Cardiff. I love the way in which my analytical or conceptual ‘lens’ have been enhanced; in other words I now see or think about the same phenomena in a range of different ways. I love the new horizons of knowledge which have opened up through access to the books, resources and journal articles at the university library. And I love the way in which my fieldwork has afforded me the opportunity to immerse myself intensely in the social world of my participants, sharing their lives and experiences in order to adequately comprehend and communicate that back out to the academic and wider communities.
What is the best thing about being a student at Cardiff?
Cardiff is a wonderful city: vibrant, historic and cosmopolitan. Though I don’t live in Cardiff, my regular travel there has been enjoyable and fruitful. The University itself is both historic and modern; some of the buildings are old and architecturally stunning yet have been updated with the latest technology inside. There are also a good number of mosques and halal takeaways catering for the Muslim community which I’ve enjoyed visiting.
What opportunities do you feel have opened up to you as a result of being a Cardiff University Jameel Scholar?
The generosity of the Jameel scholarship allowed me to return back to the world of academia even with three young children to provide for – for that I’m extremely grateful. There’s also a considerable research allowance that comes with the scholarship which funds any research-related activities; I’ve used this to purchase a state-of-the-art tablet, build up my collection of key texts, travel to conferences around the country and pay for my interview transcriptions. So in sum, I think being successful on the Jameel scholarship programme propels students into pole position in terms of providing them with everything they need to be able to focus single-mindedly on achieving excellence in their studies and subsequent careers.
