Stuart Laing

Stuart Laing was Master of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge from  2008 to 2018, responsible for the College's leadership and its strategic direction, after a first career in the British Foreign Service. As well as service in Brussels and Prague, he specialised in Arab and Middle Eastern affairs, serving in Saudi Arabia and in Cairo, and then as High Commissioner in Brunei, Ambassador in Muscat, and then in Kuwait. 

He is co-author of a book on Omani-British history, Unshook Till the End of Time, took an MPhil at Cambridge in 2012 on the abolition of slave trading in the Indian Ocean, and has published a biography of Tippu Tip, the Arab ivory trader of the late 19th century. 

He now researches, writes and lectures on Arab, Mediterranean, Iberian and African history. His other interests include playing music (mostly keyboard - piano and organ), cycling and hill-walking.