I am a Historian and Political Scientist with a focus on the Middle East and Global Islam. I am Senior Lecturer in Global Islam at the University of Bristol. I have published widely on confessional relations in Islam and the politics of the Middle East, with a focus on the Gulf Region. My research often involves multi-archival work and fieldwork, and the use of primary sources, including in Arabic. My first book, Sectarian Gulf: Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and the Arab Spring That Wasn’t (Stanford University Press, 2013), analysed the impact of the Arab Spring on the Gulf States. My second book, The Other Saudis: Shiism, Dissent and Sectarianism (Cambridge University Press, 2015) dealt with the relationship between Shia Muslims and the Saudi state and was based on fieldwork in Saudi Arabia and hitherto unused Arabic archives. My latest book, The Caliph and the Imam: The Making of Sunnism and Shiism, a global history of Sunni-Shii relations, is out with Oxford University Press in 2023. Future research interests relate to the role of religion in international affairs, especially during the Cold War, and the modern history of the Gulf States.
From 2015-2020, I was Senior Research Fellow in the International Relations of the Middle East at St. Antony’s College, University of Oxford, teaching courses on the International Relations of the Middle East, the Politics of the Middle East, and the History and Society of the Gulf States. I remain an Associate Member of Oxford University’s Department of Politics and International Relations. I was previously a Marie-Curie Global Fellow at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice and at Stanford University, and a Research Fellow at Pembroke College, University of Cambridge. I have been a guest lecturer and visiting fellow at Universities in Europe, the Middle East, the United States and Australia. My doctoral dissertation from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London was awarded the Aaron Wildavsky Award for the Best Dissertation on Religion and Politics by the American Political Science Association (APSA). I have published in major peer-reviewed journals and have experience in outreach and policy engagement. I also publish in the media and comment on current affairs, including for TV and radio networks, primarily in English and in German.