Killian Clarke
Assistant Professor
I am a political scientist who studies how everyday people can transform the worlds in which they live. Much of my work focuses on revolutions — or movements seeking to overthrow an established regime and found a new political order. I examine why revolutionary movements break out, why some struggle and why some succeed, and why some are able to establish lasting change. I also study an array of related political phenomenon like unarmed protest, armed rebellion, authoritarianism, and democratization. Much of my research is grounded in the Middle East and North Africa, and at Georgetown I am affiliated with the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies.
My first book, Return of Tyranny: Why Counterrevolutions Emerge and Succeed, was published by Cambridge University Press in their Studies in Comparative Politics Series. It explains why some revolutionary governments are rapidly toppled by counterrevolutions, whereas others go on to establish durable and long-lasting regimes. I analyze Egypt's 2011 revolution and 2013 counterrevolution, using a combination of interview and protest data, and I compare Egypt's trajectory to those of other revolutionary regimes with an original dataset of counterrevolutions since 1900.
My academic articles have been published in a number of forums including American Political Science Review, Annual Review of Political Science, British Journal of Political Science, World Politics, Perspectives on Politics, Journal of Peace Research, and Comparative Politics. I have also written about my research for various news and longform outlets, including The New York Times, Foreign Affairs, and Dissent.
I received my PhD from Princeton University’s Department of Politics, and also hold an MA in Middle Eastern Studies from NYU’s Hagop Kevorkian Center and a BA from Harvard University. I have also been affiliated with Harvard’s Weatherhead Center for International Affairs as a Raphael Morrison Dorman Memorial Postdoctoral Fellow, and with Brandeis’ Crown Center for Middle East Studies as a Faculty Leave Fellow.
You can find more information about me and my work at my website.