Staff profile

I am an Assistant Professor in Politics and Islam at the School of Government and International Affairs at Durham, where I work on the comparative politics of the Middle East and North Africa. I have two main areas of interest. First, I study Islamist political parties, investigating the role of religion in political life. Second, I research the politics of protest. 

Before coming to Durham I spent three years as a Fellow by Examination at Magdalen College, Oxford. Previously, I worked 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

• Merone, F., & McCarthy, R. (2024). Explaining the Distinction Between Religious and Political Activism in Islamism: Evidence from the Tunisian Case. Politics and Religion, 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. (2023). Islamism, party change, and strategic conciliation: Evidence from Tunisia. Party Politics, https://doi.org/10.1177/13540688231192393
• 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