There’s a responsibility that comes with graduating from SOAS University of London. At the 2024 Honorary Graduands, which celebrates the pioneers of SOAS — it’s world-class, international faculty — Professor Anthony Bogues makes this known.
“Your task, in my view, is about how to build that new world,” says the Honorary Doctor of Literature recipient. “To build that world is going to require a different set of ideas, new approaches, a different understanding of creativity, of human beings, to unleash something that can challenge and change the world we live in today.”
Making a difference is what the SOAS experience is all about. Open-minded faculty, staff, and students fill its central London campus to build the grounds for equal discussion and respect towards diverse perspectives. After all, it isn’t titled the World’s University for nothing.
As the only institution in Europe amplifying voices from Africa, Asia, and Europe since its founding in 1916, SOAS is renowned for its interdisciplinary approach to learning and research, aimed at addressing global issues and bettering communities.
Hence, for postgraduate students at SOAS, education is an active pursuit. Their learning revolves around finding solutions to disparities across human rights, migration, poverty, legal systems, and more.
SOAS offers more than 200 postgraduate degree programmes. Source: SOAS University of London
For the love of language
There are more than 7,000 languages in the world, and nearly half risk extinction in the coming centuries. They would succumb to endangerment, and cities across the world would no longer be coloured by linguistic diversity.
Well, not in Dr. Ross Perlin’s books. Quite literally, as the SOAS alum released a book last year, titled “Language City: The Fight to Preserve Endangered Mother Tongues in New York.”
The MA Linguistics graduate turned linguist, writer, and Columbia University teacher first took an interest to the field while growing up in multilingual New York. He was raised monolingually; however, it was hard to ignore that the diverse languages spoken around him hinted at deep-seated identities and histories. His passion for language preservation intensified at a lecture he attended in China about documenting minority languages.
“I heard about the MA in Language Documentation and Description at SOAS and joined on a Marshall Scholarship. SOAS was the epicentre of this movement to document endangered languages, and it was an extraordinary place to enter the field.”
The Department of Linguistics lives under the School of Languages, Cultures, and Linguistics at SOAS — but that’s far from being the only specialised department at the university. Across three colleges, and nine schools and departments covering fields like anthropology and sociology, finance and management, politics and international studies, and more, there’s no limitation as to what your career pursuit can be.
SOAS ranks 2nd in the UK for their international faculty. Source: SOAS University of London
Open minds, open doors
At SOAS, Perlin found the doors to his 20-year-long career.
“SOAS was my entry point into everything I’m doing now,” he says. “It’s where I learned the skills and met the people that led to the last years of work, from my PhD to my work at the Endangered Language Alliance and my book, Language City.”
Graduates like Perlin aren’t afraid to take risks in their careers, and it’s a trait built through an education deeply rooted in real-world applications — no matter the programme. Students have access to loads of research and fieldwork opportunities that traverse the world with change-making impact, from challenging prevailing norms on disability in sub-Saharan Africa to building a climate-resilient economy in Thailand. Specialised experts offer personalised attention to their students, helping them realise their full potential in an environment tailored to their success.
Lucky for Perlin, this diverse community reflects the beauty of his New York upbringing. Over 5,500 students call SOAS home, with a portion of them hailing from 133 countries. They have access to over 100 student societies, state-of-the art facilities, research centres, a library filled with more than 1.3 million materials in 400 languages, and so much more.
“It was a place full of all kinds of famously quirky, eccentric, and brilliant characters from all over the world. I remember a fire drill where everybody poured out onto the street and you could hear all the diverse languages people were speaking and the obscure vents happening worldwide,” Perlin says.
While studying at SOAS, Perlin was inspired by Chinese linguist Sun Hongkai — and it led him to pursue a PhD in a “remote valley in the mountains” of the Eastern Himalayas. He later returned to New York to join the Endangered Language Alliance, where he now serves as co-director. He’s just one of 75,000 SOAS alumni thriving in their careers across the world.
Learn more about becoming a true changemaker at SOAS University of London.
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