Courtney FreerAssistant Professor
Biography
Courtney Freer is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Middle Eastern and South Asian Studies. Her academic work focuses on domestic politics, international relations, and Islamism in the Gulf states; she is the author of Rentier Islamism: The Influence of the Muslim Brotherhood in Gulf Monarchies (Oxford University Press, 2018), The Resilience of Parliamentary Politics in Kuwait: Rentierism, Ideology, and Mobilization (Oxford University Press, 2024) and co-author with Alanoud al-Sharekh of Tribalism and Political Power in the Gulf: State-Building and National Identity in Kuwait, Qatar and the UAE (IB Tauris, 2021).
Dr. Freer holds a BA in Near Eastern Studies from Princeton University, an MA in Middle Eastern Studies from The George Washington University, and a DPhil in Politics from the University of Oxford. She has studied Spanish in Seville and Arabic in Cairo and Beirut, and has held positions at the US-Saudi Arabian Business Council in Virginia, Brookings Doha Center in Qatar, and the London School of Economics and Political Science in the UK.
Dr. Freer teaches classes focused on the contemporary Middle East and on the interplay between Islam and politics in the modern Middle East.
Education/Degrees
- D.Phil., Politics, University of Oxford, England
- M.A., Middle East Studies, The George Washington University
- A.B., Near Eastern Studies, Princeton University
Teaching/Research Areas
- Political science
- Islam and politics
Books Published
- The Resilience of Parliamentary Politics in Kuwait: Parliament, Rentierism, and Society (Oxford University Press, November 2023)
- With Alanoud Alsharekh. Tribalism and Political Power in the Gulf: State-Building and National Identity in Kuwait, Qatar and the UAE (IB Tauris, 2021)
- Rentier Islamism: The Influence of the Muslim Brotherhood in Gulf Monarchies (Oxford University Press, 2018)
