Delighted to see my paper "Mobile money and the social contract: Experimental evidence from Ghana" (coauthored with David Doyle) out at World Development! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

In Belfast for #EPSS2026! Presenting a paper on the effects of inter-ethnic exposure on mobilisation in Mandatory Palestine. If you're around and want to grab a coffee, drop me a message!

New @pomeps.bsky.social Studies collection out! Examines both structural challenges for "weak" states in the Middle East and the agency they display in confronting them: "Weak States in a Turbulent Middle East" pomeps.org/pomeps-studi...

📢 The program for the 4th edition of the Yale-UB Historical Political Economy Workshop is out! 📍 Barcelona · 🗓️ June 29–30 Two days of talks ahead — really looking forward to it! Jointly organized with the great @Didacqueralt.bsky.social

1/ Happy to share that "Factorial Difference-in-Differences" (FDID), with Anqi Zhao and @pengding00 , is out in JASA - ACS. doi.org/10.1080/0162... It has been a truly thrilling experience working with Anqi and Peng.

How has the image of the Palestinian mother been repurposed to sell banking and telecommunications products in the West Bank? Read @leverhulme.ac.uk Early Career Fellow @polly-withers.bsky.social in Feminist Theory journals.sagepub.com/doi/epdf/10....

📄 New paper: people choose AI models partly on political grounds This is joint work with @pettertornberg.com @chrisbail.bsky.social @michelleschimmel.bsky.social and led by @michaelheseltine.bsky.social

So exciting to see my paper "Ethnic Geography and the Colonial Design of Administrative Units in Sub-Saharan Africa" out in @cpsjournal.bsky.social ! Administrative regions and districts are important but why did (colonial) rulers shape them the way they did? A 🧵 journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

New paper w/ @lstoetze.bsky.social "Estimating Treatment Effects on Proportions with Synthetic Controls" out in @polanalysis.bsky.social 👀 When your outcomes are compositional (such as vote shares), applying synthetic controls separately to each part can break the math. We show how to fix it: 🧵

Next week (12–13 May), we at LSE are hosting a @civica.bsky.social workshop on Exclusionary Politics, organised by yours truly with @isoldehegemann.bsky.social, @miguelpereira.bsky.social and @zachdickson.bsky.social. For attendance, please sign up here in advance: us.list-manage.com/SpeGlF3Rh5M

❗Confrontational tactics like street blockades and food attacks on art hurt activists' image, but not their cause. 📄 New paper out in Political Behavior (@polbehavior.bsky.social) w/ @dasalgon.bsky.social @sophiahunger.bsky.social & @swenhutter.bsky.social. 🧵1/7

CfP for our 3rd Annual HPE Conference @uscprice.bsky.social @usc.edu sponsored by @usccis.bsky.social and PIPE. Submit by May 30. If you work on MENA, I am running a smaller pre-conference for HPE papers focused on the region. @polisky.bsky.social docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

"Lizzie Hobbs, a PhD student who took part in LSE’s month-long protest encampment in the summer of 2024, is among those whose social media posts were flagged to the university by Horus." Instead of divesting from genocide and commending Lizzie's efforts, the LSE paid Horus to spy on her.

"Among those monitored were a Palestinian academic invited to give a guest lecture at Manchester Metropolitan University and a pro-Gaza PhD student at the London School of Economics, according to internal documents." www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/4/... libertyinvestigates.org.uk/articles/bri...

Top UK universities spent £440k+ on private security to spy on their own pro-Palestine students and academics. No wonder a recent survey of Middle East Politics scholars by @abuaardvark.bsky.social and @stelhami.bsky.social found that 81% self-censor when it comes to criticism of Israel

From our FirstView articles: A Precolonial Paradox? Rethinking Political Centralization and Its Legacies by MARTHA WILFAHRT. doi.org/10.1017/S000...

From our FirstView: Political Symbols and Social Order: Confederate Monuments and Performative Violence in the Post-Reconstruction U.S. South by LEE-OR ANKORI-KARLINSKY. doi.org/10.1017/S000...

Ahead of the local elections, here's an easy guide of how best to assess the results as they come in, including the best metrics to use and some historical benchmarks. It's on the longer side, but is split into sections and filled with lots of (hopefully) useful data, and completely free-to-read.

I'm very excited that you all can now read about Itinerant Rule in the Holy Roman Empire from 919-1519 in the @ajpseditor.bsky.social! Thank you @claranw.bsky.social, @andrejkokkonen.bsky.social and Jørgen Møller for a great collaboration! onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Check out my FT op-ed on why the current war and its aftermath are a bigger concern for the UAE's economy than the less globalized Saudi one - www.ft.com/content/e7af...

Read Professor Steffen Hertog's lastest article in the Financial Times, providing expert insight on the question of the moment: How hard will war hit the Gulf’s economies? www.ft.com/content/e7af... @shertog.bsky.social

Out in @thejop.bsky.social: How Exiles Mobilize Domestic Dissent with @aasiegel.bsky.social We investigate how Egyptian exiles influenced a cascade of online dissent that culminated in anti-regime protests back home in September 2019. Article link: www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...

When protests remove autocrats, the regime’s security forces have often defected. In a new Journal of Peace Research article we introduce the DDC dataset—the first disaggregated global dataset tracking security force disloyalty during dissent campaigns (1970–2013). 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/jopr...

The Association for Gulf and Arabian Peninsula Studies (AGAPS) is proud to announce a call for applications to its 2026 graduate student workshop, to take place on the weekend of July 25- 26 via Zoom. The deadline to apply is March 27. More info: pomeps.org/call-for-aga...

Excited to share “Commanders of the Mujahideen: Introducing the Jihadist Leaders Dataset” at JPR! Analyzing Arabic, French, German, Turkish, and Urdu sources, we gathered information on the backgrounds and experiences of 237 leaders across multiple regions academic.oup.com/jpr/advance-...

🧵on my new paper "Synthetic personas distort the structure of human belief systems" w Roberto Cerina I'm v excited about... 🚨 Do synthetic samples look like human samples? We compare 28 LLMs to the 2024 General Social Survey (GSS) to find out + develop host of diagnostics...

“In the Gulf, only 9% say Israel is the greatest threat…the most telling number in the survey in these highly autocratic countries is the whopping 42% who said don't know/decline to answer.. the mukhabarat (secret police) is, in fact, the greatest threat.” abuaardvarkghost.ghost.io/mena-academy...

Applications are now open for the 2026 APSA MENA Research Development Group! Who: Early career scholars of MENA in polisci/similar field When: Sept 2 Where: APSA conference in Boston Why: Feedback + mentorship from senior scholars, engage with a great cohort Apply: web.apsanet.org/mena/wp-cont...

Join us in-person or via Zoom on Wednesdays for this term's edition of the @lsegovernment.bsky.social Contentious Politics Workshop! Topics to be covered include mobilisation, democratisation, protest exposure, and more. DM for Zoom links and our mailing list!

📢 We're thrilled to announce our open call for applications to TIMEP's 2026-2027 Nonresident Fellowship program! If you're an early or mid-career advocate keen on engaging in the MENA policy space, don't miss this unique opportunity. Apply by Feb 27: timep.org/2026/02/02/o...

We are thrilled to have Dr Iman Dawood present our next Seminar Series💡 🌎How Ideologies Become Invisible: Methodological Reflections on the Study of ‘Common Sense’ 🕙13 Feb, 2.00pm - 3.00pm Secure your place➡️ www.eventbrite.com/e/department...

📣 Call for Abstracts! Excited to be among the organisers of the 12th annual Graduate Conference in Political Theory (28-29th May)! Submit abstracts here: forms.gle/ccfeNR21Pn3Y... Please share among colleagues and fellow PhD Students!

📢 JOB ALERT! Postdoc opportunity in Political Behaviour & Political Economy (UKRI‑funded) - Please do share with anyone who might be a great fit. If you’re interested or would like to know more, please feel free to get in touch!! jobs.reading.ac.uk/Job/JobDetai...

“By contrast [to 1979], the 2025-6 uprising reached mass demonstrations in some major cities and attempts to seize state buildings within roughly two weeks. The sequence collapsed into simultaneity.” - fascinating on “Iran after the massacre” by Ali Kadivar open.substack.com/pub/alikadiv...

Scariest chart I've seen in a long time. If this is real, UK graduate vacancies have fallen 70% relative to 2017 and are as low as at the bottom of the pandemic. Data is from job matching platform Adzuna. www.ft.com/content/c894...

Join us in-person or via Zoom on Wednesdays for this term's edition of the @lsegovernment.bsky.social Contentious Politics Workshop! Topics to be covered include mobilisation, democratisation, protest exposure, and more. DM for Zoom links and our mailing list!

📣 Call for Papers: 🗓️ 23-24 April 2026 at LSE Submit full papers: forms.office.com/e/9qVWeNTK0p Please share with colleagues & early-career researchers!

📣 Call for Papers: 🗓️ 23-24 April 2026 at LSE Submit full papers: forms.office.com/e/9qVWeNTK0p Please share with colleagues & early-career researchers!

📢 Public Event Announcement Join us for Professor Hertog's inaugural lecture: "How oil rents fuel populist foreign policy" on 21 January 2026 at 6.30pm In-person and online tickets available 👇 www.lse.ac.uk/events/21-ja... #LSEEvents @lseevents.bsky.social @shertog.bsky.social

Trump is probably about to bomb Iran. But this piece lays out the reality of dwindling American hard power in the region - not to mention that most of the Gulf states who might share the burden are against it. www.politico.com/news/2026/01...

It's finally here! Remember that weird group of Emirati influencers you keep seeing online. Well I've done a VERY deep dive, & the story is even weirder than you can imagine! "Amjad Taha, Muslim Brotherhood Maxxing & the Emirati #Dysinfluencer Factory" open.substack.com/pub/marcowen...

How Police Behavior Shapes Perceptions of Protests: Evidence from Black Lives Matter @poppublicsphere.bsky.social Jasmine English, @arielrwhite.bsky.social @eckhouse.bsky.social www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

I am hiring a post-doctoral fellow (2 years) to work on all things political finance in Africa. There are no teaching obligations, and lots of opportunities for fieldwork. A PhD in Political Science is a requirement. Please spread the word! Happy to answer questions - send them to my LSE email.

🚨 📖 “Nationalism and the Transformation of the State” is out with CUP! I’m so happy to conclude 6 years of research with Lars-Erik Cederman, Luc Girardin, Yannick Pengl and many others like that! It’s open access @cambup-polsci.cambridge.org here: tinyurl.com/nastac What’s the book all about? A 🧵

On this first anniversary of the stunning fall, I'm proud to be in @pomeps.bsky.social just-released collection on Syria with an essay on The Question of Return. Despite its liberatory potential, the regime’s end also exposes the deep vulnerability of Syrian refugees pomeps.org/the-question...

🚨Jobs!🚨 3-year PostDoc positions (aka Research Officers) at @lsegovernment.bsky.social to work with me on the local consequences of border change. Please reach out for questions and apply by Jan 4th to join the team and department: I’d love to hear from you! Job ad: jobs.lse.ac.uk/Vacancies/W/...

Had a great time presenting my findings at @campaign-lab.bsky.social! Key takeaway: AI fact-checking effectively reduces Republican engagement with pro-Trump misinformation on social media. You can read more about last week's presentation and discussion in this blog post:

Apply by 12/14! Early-career scholars in the #MENA region are invited to apply for the 2026 #IQMR, held at the @maxwellsu.bsky.social of Syracuse University, supporting up to three MENA scholars to attend. Apply Now!

📢 Call for Submissions UK-based early career researchers in political science, political economy & public policy: apply to our January Early Career Workshop at LSE. 🗓️ Deadline: 28 Dec 2025 🔗 forms.gle/HXU4DnBq9HmX...