Faculty Expert Profile

Parkinson is a professor of political science and international studies whose research examines organizational behavior and social change during and following war.

Focusing predominantly on the Middle East and North Africa, she uses social network analysis and ethnographic methods to study the ways that militant organizations, political parties, and humanitarian groups cope with crisis, disruption, and fragmentation. She has conducted extensive fieldwork among Palestinian and Syrian refugees in Lebanon and with humanitarian organizations in Iraqi Kurdistan. Parkinson’s work has been published in multiple publications including the American Political Science Review, The Middle East Report, and the Monkey Cage.

Her research included a study of ethical communities of practice in crisis zones for the Berman Institute of Bioethics. Through 2021, Parkinson will conduct fieldwork on emergency response in the Middle East.

Parkinson serves on the steering committee of the Project on Middle East Political Science, a collaborative network designed to enhance the field of Middle East political science and to advance its engagement with academics, policy circles, and the broader public realm. She is a co-founder of the Advancing Research on Conflict Consortium.