Dara Conduit

I am an Australian Research Council DECRA Research Fellow and Lecturer in Political Science in the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Melbourne, and a Non-Resident Scholar at the Middle East Institute in Washington D.C.

My research sits at the intersection of authoritarian politics and cyber technology, and I am currently working on a research project on digital authoritarianism. I have a regional specialism in the Middle East, particularly Syria and Iran. My work has been published in top-tier political science journals including Democratization, Political Geography and The Middle East Journal.

My book 'The Muslim Brotherhood in Syria', which was published by Cambridge University Press, won the 2020 Oceania Book Prize for International Studies. I am a regular media commentator, have been invited to attend UN consultation meetings on the National Agenda for the Future of Syria (2020, 2021) and to provide advice to the UN OHCHR’s Working Group on Mercenaries.

I have worked on several large projects funded by organisations including the Australian Research Council and the Carnegie Corporation of New York.

I have a PhD from Monash University (2017), a M.Litt in Middle East and Central Asian Security Studies from the University of St Andrews (2011) and a Diploma of Languages (Arabic) from Deakin University.