Join the LSE Middle East Centre for a celebration of the work of Professor Charles Tripp through a new edited volume. The evening will include a discussion between Professor Tripp's former colleagues and PhD students, followed by a drinks reception. Copies of the book will be available to purchase on the night.

The work of Charles Tripp – professor at SOAS University of London for over three decades – has shaped a distinct approach to the study of Middle East politics: an analytical sensibility that is empirically rich, theoretically insightful, and historically sensitive.

Power, Resistance, Ideology and the State: Charles Tripp and the Comparative Politics of the Middle East is an edited volume that brings together contributions from ten political scientists and historians from across Europe, the United States, and the Middle East, each of whom takes Tripp’s work as the intellectual point of departure for studying politics in the region. Their contributions focus on four central themes – power, resistance, ideology and the state – that are central in the field of Middle East politics as a means of examining political trends in case - studies ranging from Iran and Iraq to Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. Each chapter combines extensive field research and a knowledge of regional politics with methodological and philosophical reflexivity to produce a collection of papers at the cutting edge of contemporary Middle East Studies.

Meet our speakers and chair

Ali M. Ansari is Professor of Iranian History and founding Director of the Institute for Iranian Studies at the University of St Andrews; Senior Associate Fellow, Royal United Services Institute. In 2018 he was elected Hon Vice President of the British Institute for Persian Studies, and re-elected President of BIPS in 2023. His publications include Modern Iran since 1797 (Taylor and Francis, 2019); Iran, Islam & Democracy - The Politics of Managing Change (Gingko, 2019); Iran: A Very Short Introduction (OUP, 2014); The Politics of Nationalism in Modern Iran (CUP, 2012). His latest book is a short history of Iran for Polity Press, published in 2024.

Eberhard Kienle is Directeur de recherche (Research Professor) at the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) in Paris and teaches politics at SciencesPo Paris. He previously served as director of the Institut français du Proche-Orient (Ifpo, French Near East Institute) in Beirut, member of the UN OHCHR fact finding mission to Syria, and programme officer at the Ford Foundation Cairo office. He has published extensively on the political sociology and economy of the Middle East and its international relations. Thematically his interests include economic and social policies and the transformation of political regimes, as well as the erosion and disintegration of contemporary states. Geographically he has focused on Egypt and the Fertile Crescent. His publications include Ba’th versus Ba’th: The conflict between Syria and Iraq, 1968-1989 (London, I.B. Tauris, 1990) and A Grand Delusion: Democracy and Economic Reform in Egypt (London, I.B. Tauris, 2001). With Nadine Sika he co-edited The Arab Uprisings: Transforming and Challenging State Power (London, I.B. Tauris, 2015).

Daniel Neep is a political scientist who works on conflict and state-building in the Middle East, with a focus on Syria. Neep is the author of Occupying Syria: Insurgency, Space, and State Formation (Cambridge 2012). He is currently finishing his second book, The Nation Belongs to All: The Making of Modern Syria, which explains Syria’s political development in terms of global transformations, changing economic infrastructures, emerging political geographies, and waves of popular protest. His research has been supported by the Andrew L. Mellon Foundation, the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars, the American Druze Foundation, the British Academy, the Council for British Research in the Levant, and the Arts & Humanities Research Council (UK), in addition to the Crown Center for Middle East Studies at Brandeis University, where he is a Non-resident Fellow. He has taught Middle East politics at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service and the University of Exeter, and currently teaches in the Department of Political Science at George Washington.

Evaleila Pesaran is Senior College Lecturer in Politics and International Relations at Murray Edwards College, University of Cambridge. She is also a Director of Studies for Human, Social, and Political Sciences (HSPS) as well History and Politics at Murray Edwards College. Evaleila research interests include the politics of domination and resistance, with reference to the case study of modern Iran. Her work focusses on three main strands: (1) ideas of economic independence; (2) the theory and practice of anti-imperialism; and (3) state-society relations and state resilience. Her next research project will bring together these three strands within an interdisciplinary analysis of the intellectual output of Iranian women.

Toby Dodge is a Professor in the Department of International Relations. He is also Kuwait Professor and Director of the Kuwait Programme, Middle East Centre. Toby's research concentrates on the evolution of the post-colonial state in the international system. The main focus of this work on the developing world is the state in the Middle East, specifically Iraq. His works include Inventing Iraq: The Failure of Nation Building and History Denied and Iraq: from War to a New Authoritarianism.