Research Expertise and Interest

Old and Middle Iranian languages, Zoroastrianism, Manichaeism, Arabic dialectology, sociolinguistics, philology, Libyan Studies, archives

Research Description

Adam Benkato is Associate Professor, and holder of the Bita Daryabari Presidential Chair in Iranian Studies, in the Department of Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures. His work investigates a wide variety of sources through the lenses of material philology, sociolinguistics, archive studies, postcolonialism, and oral literature. He specializes particularly in the Middle Iranian language Sogdian, but works on and teaches other ancient Iranian languages as well (such as Middle Persian, Parthian, Bactrian, Old Persian). He also carries out research on the dialectology and sociolinguistics of modern Arabic, focusing on northern Africa.