Dr. Vahid Nick Pay

Vahid Nick Pay is a lecturer in International Politics and a member of the Management Board at the Diplomatic Studies Programme, University of Oxford. He is also a member of the Management Committee at the Centre for International Studies Department of Politics and International Relations University of Oxford, a Member of the Senior Common Room at Saint Antony's College University and a Fellow of Higher Education Academy

Dr. Nick Pay is a multidisciplinary academic with expertise and interests in several fields of Social Sciences such as Discourse Analysis, Ethics, Political Philosophy, Security Studies and Political Theology. He also has extensive experience in other professional domains such as Journalism and IT.

Vahid has a diverse personal background. He witnessed first-hand one of the most radical revolutions of the 20th century and its far-reaching socio-political implications. He experienced one of the greatest inter-state conflicts of the contemporary era (Iran-Iraq War), and was even a war refugee in western Iran. He was an eyewitness to the tragic aftermaths of the Halabja chemical attack and several other regional conflicts such as the First Gulf War. He completed his two-year obligatory national military service in the central command brigade of the Islamic Republic’s Revolutionary Guard Corps with the military rank of Captain. Subsequently, he completed one year of obligatory national conscription service in Italy in the special unit of the Italian army corps Bersaglieri. He was also in charge of refugees' auditions at Canton Ticino's federal office of refugees in Lugano Switzerland. More recently he taught Politics and International Relations at the University of Kurdistan in Iraq during the most brutal years of the ISIS campaign in that country in 2017-2018.

He held research and teaching positions in several countries such as Italy, Iraq, Iran, France and the UK, and has also extensively published and disseminated research results in prominent peer-reviewed journals and public media around the world.

Vahid also lectures at The Oxford Experience course and public and short courses on topics such as Terrorism in the Contemporary World, Religion and Politics and Media, Public Opinion and Democracy, and tutors three short courses: Ethnic and Religious Conflicts, Political Islam and Religion and Politics.