Our team in London
Professor Eleanor Robson
Eleanor was Director of the Nahrein Network. She is Emeritus Professor of Ancient Middle Eastern History at UCL, with a particular focus on Iraq. She joined the university in 2013 from the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge (2004-13) and the Faculty of Oriental Studies at the University of Oxford (1995-2003). She served as Chair of the British Institute for the Study of Iraq (2012–17) and was elected as a Fellow of the British Academy in 2022. She was Head of UCL's History Department from 2018 to 2023. She has published widely and won many international prizes for her research.
As Director of the Nahrein Network, Eleanor had overall responsibility for the Network, overseeing strategy, ethics, and risk. She also led research on the ancient and modern history of Iraq, cuneiform, and digital humanities, including a project on The Forgotten City of Kish.
Dr Mehiyar Kathem
Dr Mehiyar Kathem was the Nahrein Network's Deputy Director and a Senior Research Associate in the History Department at UCL. Mehiyar completed a PhD at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) where he researched peacebuilding interventions and the formation of Iraq's domestic NGO sector after the 2003 War. During this research, he looked at the gradual evolution of Iraq from totalitarian dictatorship through the country's emerging domestic organisations.
As Deputy Director of the Nahrein Network, Mehiyar oversaw the Research Grants and Visiting Scholarships programmes, and led the AcademIQ initiative. His role also included developing partnerships and communication with Iraqi government institutions, NGOs and academics. His research for the Network focused on the politics of cultural heritage in Iraq, statebuilding, civil society peacebuilding and the ways in which development, politics and money interact at a local level.
Mrs Oana Borlea-Stancioi
Oana was the Nahrein Network's Project Administrator in 2018-24. She was the main contact for public inquiries and serviced the Network's funding schemes. Misha also supported the core team with contracts, finances, and general day-to-day administrative assistance.
Oana took an MA in Social Anthropology at Goldsmiths, University of London in 2021–23, gaining a Distinction and winning the Pat Kaplan Prize for Best Dissertation for her research on "Isolated and/or remote - perceptions and perspectives on a Romanian mountain village"
Dr Misha Enayat
Misha was the Nahrein Network's Project Administrator in 2024-25. She was the main contact for public inquiries and serviced the Network's funding schemes. Misha also supported the core team with contracts, finances, and general day-to-day administrative assistance.
Misha’s doctoral research, undertaken at the University of Southampton, explored food practices and their sociopolitical significance in pre-Roman Iron Age Britain. Her research interests include food histories, the material culture of consumption, and archaeologies of colonialism and identity. She previously held other administrative roles within UCL’s History Department and served as Network Administrator on the Leverhulme-funded Reimagining Italianità international research network.
Mrs Zainab Mahdi
Zainab was the Communications and Social Media Officer to The Nahrein Network from 2021. She looked after all the Network’s communications, including the website, newsletters and social media, in addition to organizing events.