Dr Amin Sharifi Isaloo holds a PhD in Sociology and is a lecturer in the Department of Sociology and Criminology at University College Cork (UCC). His interests span politics, religion, arts, law and culture, particularly exploring sociological and anthropological interpretations of symbols images and ritual performances. He is the author of Power, Legitimacy and the Public Sphere: The Iranian Ta’ziyeh Theatre Ritual. Currently, he serves as the director and coordinator of the first-year undergraduate programme and tutors.

When asked what it is that he likes about teaching, Amin said the following;

"What excites and interests me most are the students, above all. Teaching is about making a difference in their lives and helping them achieve their educational and career goals. Knowledge is far more valuable when shared. Therefore, learning as a teacher and then transferring that knowledge to students has always been a top priority in my career. It is rewarding to see when students are able to apply what they've learned to real life situations."

He has been a member of the following Council, Forum and Committee at UCC:

Amin's general research interests include sociology, anthropology, politics, religion, and law focusing on methodological approaches to the understanding of uncertainty in politics and instability in societies. He sees his research as part of a broader effort in the area of social sciences to study the interactions linking human behaviour, cultural symbols and their meanings, and the public sphere in the contemporary world. Therefore, considering the fundamental issue of what it means to be human, in the sense of sociability and political community, he is interested in exploring the current deep-seated political, social and cultural crisis to understand better the valuable concepts, theories and works that has been done in various fields of social sciences.

Existing research on ‘immigration and integration process’ is still underdeveloped in terms of empirical and theoretical foundations. He is currently interested in examining EU's recent immigration crisis to investigate the interaction of emerging immigration crisis and policy making.

Amin is the co-chair of ISS21 (Institute for Social Science in the 21st Century)’s ‘Populism and the Rise of the Far Right’ cluster at UCC. He is also a committee member of the Sociology Association of Ireland (SAI), where he also works with the Race and Ethnicity study group. Additionally, Amin is a member of the European Sociological Association (ESA), where he participates in the Sociology of Migration (RN35) group.
He is also a member of IMISCOE (International Migration Research Network) working with Forced Migration and Refugees (FMR) group. Further membership details are available under the ‘Membership of Committee’ tab.

Amin has worked at University College Cork since 2012 as a tutor, tutor coordinator, lecturer and researcher. He also taught the ‘Media and Journalism’ course at Griffith College Cork from 2017 to 2019. His interdisciplinary background and interests have led him to teach a range of undergraduate and post-graduate courses in the social science, particularly Sociology. 

Currently, he coordinates and teaches undergraduate-level courses in ‘Race, Ethnicity, Migration and Nationalism’, ‘Religion and Civilisation in Sociological and Anthropological Perspective’, and ‘Understanding Globalisation and Development’ in the Department of Sociology and Criminology at UCC. In the postgraduate-level, he coordinates and teaches the ‘Populism and the Rise of the Far Right’ module, co-coordinates and teaches the ‘Im/mobilities: Forced Migration and Belonging’ module, and contributes to teaching ‘Sociological Methodology’ in the Department of Sociology and Criminology at UCC. He also supervise undergraduate research projects and postgraduate (MA & PhD) dissertations.