University of Aberdeen

Faculty Member, Politics and International Relations

Lecturer in International Relations

Arts and Social Sciences

About

I joined the Department in 2007, after a completing a PhD in St Andrews, and holding posts in Exeter and Plymouth. My research focuses on post-structuralist theory (particularly Foucault), and on the modern and contemporary Middle East. I have published work on Constructivism in IR Theory, and on the production of knowledge in Area Studies and Social Science with particular respect to the Middle East.

I am currently working on the the production of knowledge relating to democratization scholarship and democracy-assistance policy in the EU. I am interested in analyzing the kinds of performativity of democratization discourse, the relationship between the discourse and practice of democracy-assistance. A pilot project in which I compare governmental and non-governmental democracy assistance donors and their relations with their Egyptian counterparts is being funded by the Carnegie Trust.

Another part of this project, investigates 'civil society' as a category of action in academic discourse on democratization. Here, I am interested in the policy implications of the hegemony of liberal conceptions of civil society. This research is funded within the project “L’essor de la «société civile» dans le monde musulman”, lead by Prof. Anna Bozzo (Rome III) and Prof. Pierre-Jean Luizard (Groupe Sociétés, Religions et Laïcités, CNRS, Paris).

I am also Joint Investigator in the Interdisciplinary Approaches to Violence Research Cluster funded by the University of Aberdeen College of Arts and Social Sciences, which begins its activities in September 2010. The Cluster is devoted to new perspectives on the idea and practices of violence, particularly on violent performativities in emancipatory discourses, from gender mainstreaming to human rights and democratization. The Cluster is built around three primary researchers, eight doctoral researchers, and provides a focal point for research conducted by several other staff and doctoral students at the University.

Finally, I am joint director of the newly-established Critical Middle East Studies (CMES) working group within the British Society for Middle East Studies (BRISMES).

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