Doctor Gillian Kennedy

Currently teaching on the following modules: 'The Struggle for Democracy', 'Crisis of the 21st Century, 'International Politics of the Middle East', alongside my research speciality module, 'Politics and Protest'. 

I enjoy interactive teaching, expect to take part in classes involving quizzes, walking debates, online voting/polling exercises with archives and documentaries used to help students understand the complexities of protest movements, democratization and Middle Eastern societies. 

Gillian Kennedy is currently a Lecturer in Politics and International Relations. Previously she was a a Leverhulme Fellow (2017-2020) at King's College London, where her research focused on diaspora networks among British-Egyptians, exploring the connection between diaspora mobilisation and political engagement before and after the Arab Spring.

Before joining the University of Southampton in 2020, Gillian completed her PhD in the Department of Middle Eastern Studies at King’s College London. Prior to joining the University of Southampton, she worked as a lecturer at King’s College London and Regents University London, while also providing foreign policy analysis for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Her book ‘From Independence to Revolution: Egypt’s Islamists and the Contest for Power’, was published by Hurst and Oxford University Press and released in 2017.

Her current research looks at the impact of the UK's government's counter terrorism policy on BAME communities (social movement emergence), with specific focus on the design of legislation and the historical securitisation of communities.