School of Politics and International Relations
 

Image of Carl Gibson

Carl Gibson

Assistant Professor, Faculty of Social Sciences

Contact

Biography

I am a researcher and lecturer in security studies, with a focus on two main areas:

(1) Terrorism and counterterrorism (especially Critical Terrorism Studies)

(2) Middle East politics (Israel and Palestine)

These two themes converge in my research on both state and non-state violence in Israel and Palestine, especially the politics of defining such violence as 'terrorism'. My research employs ethnographic methods (often through fieldwork in the West Bank, Palestine) and critical discourse analysis to explore and visiblize what the term 'terrorism' does in the Palestinian context.

I have further research interests in Palestinian armed groups (especially Hamas), armed violence by Jewish groups in the West Bank, post- and decolonial approaches to the study of 'terrorism', and in the political basis for counter-terrorism practices in Israel and Palestine. My work draws upon English, Arabic and Hebrew-language sources.

I have taught at Nottingham since January 2021; I studied at the University of Oxford, at the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität in Bonn,Germany, and at the University of Reading, where I gained my PhD. I was a lecturer in International Relations at Reading from 2016-2020.

Expertise Summary

Critical approaches to terrorism and counter-terrorism

Hamas

Contemporary Palestinian Politics

Settler violence in the West Bank

Ethnography of political violence

Teaching Summary

I convene two modules: 'Problems in Global Politics' (POLI1016) and 'Responding to Extremism: Politics, Power, and Ethics' (POLI3118)

Additionally, I teach on 'Understanding Global Politics' (POLI1017) and Global Security (POLI2042).

I am available for PhD supervision in the following areas, and am especially keen to supervise projects using ethnographic methods and critical discourse analysis:

Critical approaches to terrorism

Ethnography of terrorism

Terrorism and counterterrorism in the Middle East (especially Israel and Palestine)

Hamas

Palestinian security politics

Suicide terrorism

School of Politics and International Relations

Law and Social Sciences building
University of Nottingham
University Park
Nottingham, NG7 2RD

Contact us