Expert Interviews is an exclusive series provided by The Gulf Nashra, where we sit down with leading researchers, policymakers, and analysts to examine the political, economic, and geopolitical dynamics shaping the Gulf, and what they mean for the rest of the world.
Our guest today is Dr. Courtney Freer. She is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Middle Eastern and South Asian Studies at Emory University and a Senior Nonresident Fellow at the Gulf International Forum. Her research specializes in Gulf politics, political science, international relations, and the relationship between Islam and politics in the contemporary Middle East. Her work focuses primarily on domestic political dynamics, Islamism, state–society relations, parliamentary politics, and political mobilization in the Gulf monarchies. She holds a D.Phil. in Politics from the University of Oxford, an M.A. in Middle Eastern Studies from The George Washington University, and a B.A. in Near Eastern Studies from Princeton University. Dr. Freer is the author of several influential works on Gulf politics, including studies of the Muslim Brotherhood in the Gulf, parliamentary politics in Kuwait, and tribalism, state-building, and national identity across the Gulf states.
