Staff profile

I am Associate Professor in Politics and Islam at the School of Government and International Affairs at Durham, where I research and teach the comparative politics of the Middle East. I work on democratization, especially political parties and civil society activism. I am writing a book on Islamist political parties in Tunisia, Morocco, and Jordan which explains party dynamics and competition under authoritarian regimes.

My work has been supported by several grants, including a Leverhulme Research Fellowship for 2024-25, a British Academy/Leverhulme Trust Small Research Grant, and a POMEPS Travel Research Engagement Grant. Recent work has appeared in Democratization, Social Movement Studies, Party Politics, Politics and Religion, the Middle East Journal, and the British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies.

I wrote Inside Tunisia's al-Nahda: Between Politics and Preaching (Cambridge University Press, 2018), which was chosen as a Foreign Affairs best book of the year, and Nobody Told Us We Are Defeated: Stories from the New Iraq (Chatto & Windus, 2006). I co-edited Civil Resistance in the Arab Spring: Triumphs and Disasters (Oxford University Press, 2016).

Before coming to Durham I was a Fellow by Examination in Oriental Studies at Magdalen College, Oxford. Previously, I spent a decade as a foreign correspondent with the Guardian, with postings in Islamabad, Baghdad, Beirut, and Jerusalem. I have a BA in History from Cambridge and an MPhil in Modern Middle Eastern Studies and a DPhil in Oriental Studies from Oxford. I am a Fellow of the HEA.

Research Grants:

2024-25: Leverhulme Research Fellowship, 'Examining the Islamist Legitimacy Crisis' (£64,876)

2022-24: BA/Leverhulme Small Research Grant, 'Islamist Dilemmas: Investigating Dynamics of Islamist Party Change in North Africa' (£9,850)

2021-22: POMEPS Travel, Research and Engagement Grant, 'Islamist Party Change: Strategies after Electoral Setbacks' ($3,000)

2020-24: Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Savoir Grant, 'Loyalties of the Faithful: Attitudes and Values of Islamist Party Members' (PI Prof. Francesco Cavatorta, CA$163,741)

2017-18: APSA Small Research Grant, 'Tunisia and the Politics of Protest' ($1,250)

• Islamism
• Comparative Politics of the Middle East
• Contentious Politics

Authored book

• McCarthy, R. (2018). Inside Tunisia's al-Nahda: Between Politics and Preaching. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108560511
• McCarthy, R. (2006). Nobody Told Us We Are Defeated: Stories from the New Iraq. Chatto & Windus

Book review

• McCarthy, R. (2023). The Unfinished Arab Spring: Micro-dynamics of revolts between change and continuity. British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, 50(1), 214-215. https://doi.org/10.1080/13530194.2020.1823746

Chapter in book

• McCarthy, R. (2023). Hizb al-Tahrir Tunisia. In K. Fleet, G. Kramer, D. Matringe, J. Nawas, & D. Stewart (Eds.), Encyclopaedia of Islam (3rd ed.). (3rd ed.). Brill Academic Publishers. https://doi.org/10.1163/1573-3912_ei3_com_45918
• McCarthy, R. (2016). The Tunisian uprising, Ennahdha, and the revival of an Arab-Islamic Identity. In S. J. Holliday, & P. Leech (Eds.), Political Identities and Popular Uprisings in the Middle East (157-176). Rowman & Littlefield International

Edited book

• Roberts, A., Willis, M. J., McCarthy, R., & Garton Ash, T. (Eds.). (2016). Civil Resistance in the Arab Spring: Triumphs and Disasters. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof%3Aoso/9780198749028.001.0001

Journal Article

• McCarthy, R. (2024). Islamism, party change, and strategic conciliation: Evidence from Tunisia. Party Politics, 30(6), 1064-1074. https://doi.org/10.1177/13540688231192393
• Merone, F., & McCarthy, R. (2024). Explaining the Distinction Between Religious and Political Activism in Islamism: Evidence from the Tunisian Case. Politics and Religion, 17(2), 296 - 314. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1755048324000087
• McCarthy, R. (2023). Autonomous Activism and Accountability in a Democratic Transition: Evidence from Tunisia. Democratization, 30(5), 875-893. https://doi.org/10.1080/13510347.2023.2192931
• McCarthy, R. (2022). Transgressive Protest after a Democratic Transition: The Kamour Campaign in Tunisia. Social Movement Studies, 21(6), 798-815. https://doi.org/10.1080/14742837.2021.1967128
• McCarthy, R. (2019). The Politics of Consensus: Al-Nahda and the stability of the Tunisian transition. Middle Eastern Studies, 55(2), 261-275. https://doi.org/10.1080/00263206.2018.1538969
• McCarthy, R. (2018). When Islamists Lose: The Politicization of Tunisia's Ennahda Movement. The Middle East journal, 72(3), 365-384. https://doi.org/10.3751/72.3.11
• McCarthy, R. (2015). Protecting the Sacred: Tunisia's Islamist Movement Ennahdha and the Challenge of Free Speech. British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, 42(4), 447-464. https://doi.org/10.1080/13530194.2015.1005055
• McCarthy, R. (2014). Re-thinking Secularism in Post-Independence Tunisia. The Journal of North African Studies, 19(5), 733-750. https://doi.org/10.1080/13629387.2014.917585

Other (Print)

• McCarthy, R. (2021). Political Mistrust and the Islamist Impasse
• Green, D., & McCarthy, R. (2020). Lawrence of Oxford