Akil N. Awan is a Lecturer in Contemporary Islam and the current RCUK Fellow in the ‘Contemporary History of Faith, Power and Terror’ in the Departments of History but is affiliated with the Department of Politics and International Relations, at Royal Holloway, University of London. He is also a current Research Associate both with the Centre for Ethnic Minority Studies (CEMS), and with the New Political Communication Unit (NPCU) at Royal Holloway. Previously he has served as a Research Associate on the ESRC project Shifting Securities: News Cultures Before and Beyond the Iraq War.

His key research interests at present are focused around the root causes and antecedents of Islamic Political Radicalism and Terrorism amongst Diasporic Muslim communities, particularly amongst British Muslims. There are a number of avenues of research which he is currently pursuing including: The Function, legitimacy, and radicalising efficacy of Virtual Jihadist media; Changing configurations of religious authority sources/structures and its effects on increasing political radicalisation and ideological support for terrorism; and changes in religiosity and issues of identity formulation particularly vis-à-vis religion.