research

Broadly speaking, my research interests lie in the politics of identity, especially during times of civil war. My book project, tentatively titled Minority Communities in Times of Conflict: Civil War in Lebanon and Syria, focuses on communal groups whose identities trouble the identity narratives of civil wars through examining the experiences of “minority” groups whose ethnic or sectarian identity does not neatly fit the “master cleavage” narrative in times of intrastate conflict. I study the experiences of “minority” communities during the Lebanese civil war (1975-1991) and the ongoing conflict in Syria. I attempt to theorize how political institutions, diaspora connections, the international environment and communities’ narratives of the conflict influence group decision making processes in times of conflict.

My field research has been carried out in Lebanon, Turkey, Tunisia, Germany, France, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Research in Progress

“How Bashar al-Asad Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the ‘War on Terror’”

“Insurgent Narratives and Insurgent Realities” (with Romain Malejacq and William Reno)

“Counting the Bodies” (with Mostafa Hefny)

“Organization in the Revolution: Cohesion and Fragmentation in Syria’s Civil War”

“Egyptian responses to the Covid-19 outbreak”

 “Identity-coding in the study of ‘sectarian’ and ‘ethnic’ conflict”

 “The PKK years in Syria: Impacts on domestic Kurdish politics”

“Counting co-ethnics: Nation building and the census in Lebanon and Hasaka, Syria”