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A view of Singleton Campus including Singleton Park and the beach, with the sea stretching into the horizon.
Llun proffil o Dr Christopher Cox

Dr Chris Cox

Research Assistant
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences

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Research Links

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9568-6994

About

Chris joined Swansea University in Aprill 2024 as a research assistant (RA) to support the development and expansion of the Geopolitical Challenges Research Institute (GCRI) and Climate Action Research Network (CARN), both based in FHSS. Among his duties this includes identifying new and innovative areas for research, fostering interdisciplinary collaboration, and helping support funding bid developments.

Before joining Swansea Chris worked as a research assistant/associate on open research at the University of Leeds. He also recently completed his PhD in Middle Eastern Politics at the Institute of Arab & Islamic Studies, University of Exeter. Chris was awarded a full 1+3 ESRC scholarship through the South West Doctoral Training Partnership (SWDTP) to undertake his doctoral studies at Exeter. His thesis was entitled After the Dust Has Settled: Exploring ‘Residue’ from the 2011 Arab Uprising in Morocco and How it has Shaped Youth Political Participation Over the Years Since.

Alongside his RA role at Swansea, he is currently preparing his thesis for book publication along with other publications from his research pursuits. These include a journal article on youth and civil society participation in Morocco, and a book chapter on Morocco’s Atlas Lions’ football success at the 2022 FIFA World Cup and its impacts on Pan-Africanism. He is also exploring new research ideas and opportunities to pursue in the near future.

His research expertise and interests principally lie in comparative politics in the Middle East and North Africa region (MENA), where his PhD examined the longer-term impacts and legacy of the 2011 Arab Uprisings (Arab Spring) on youth and grassroots political participation in Morocco. He therefore specialises in areas including youth and political agency, authoritarian resilience, opposition dynamics under authoritarianism, political activism and social movements (including News Social Movement Theory), civil society, political parties, youth and climate action, foreign ‘democratic aid’, and sports (mainly football) and political participation and identities.

Whilst his specialisms are primarily rooted in the MENA region Chris is interested in broadening out his expertise into the wider Global South and comparatively with Global Northern/Western case studies. He therefore welcomes opportunities to advise and support research projects at Swansea in themes related to his research specialisms.

Areas Of Expertise

  • Comparative politics in the Middle East and North Africa region (MENA)
  • Youth and political agency
  • Authoritarian resilience and opposition politics
  • Political activism, parties and social movements
  • 2011 Arab Uprisings

Career Highlights

Research

Chris’s research is mainly centred around exploring grassroots attitudes, perspectives and experiences with modes of political participation. As such he deals with multiple avenues of expression and engagement including, but not limited to, political party membership, political activism engagement, interactions with social movements, civil society participation, online-based expression, and more.

He focuses mainly on how such interactions take place in autocratic and democratising cases, where room for opposition and dissent are traditionally curtailed or limited. With this he examines themes like citizenry empowerment, opposition dynamics, and whether and how grassroots-level participation can affect established state-society relations. He has examined these in relation to major socio-political phenomenon like the 2011 Arab Uprisings, principally Morocco, but also Egypt, Tunisia and Jordan.

To date his research here has focussed on youth and political agency, where he has also dissected and analysed intersectional dynamics in how varying personal and in-group traits shape political socialisation, perceptions, attitudes, and engagement with modes of participation.

He has also began researching more youth political expression and participation through football ultras, as well as football and national and transnational identities, so far all regarding the case of Morocco.

In his RA role at Swansea, Chris is helping to identify new and innovative areas for research for those engaging with the GCRI and CARN, helping to develop the RIs/RNs, exploring and supporting research bid development, and supporting researchers with their projects.

Award Highlights