" Abdulla Al-Kalisy
About
Abdulla Al-Kalisy is a Senior Researcher at the Institute of Regional and International Studies (IRIS) at the American University of Iraq, Sulaimani and a PhD Candidate in International Relations at the University of St Andrews. His doctoral research theorises emerging forms of citizenship in Iraq through the lens of social movements, drawing on fieldwork in Baghdad. He holds an MA in Political Science from Massey University, and a BA in Political Science and Mathematics also from Massey. His MA research was published in Global Studies Quarterly, where he analysed competitive authoritarianism in Iraq during the 20th century and explored the role of political memoirs in narratives of rule. His wider research interests include informal institutions, state society relations, social movements, and informal political economies in the region.
Peer Reviewed
- Iraq’s authoritarian democracies: A conceptual framework through Tawfiq al-Suwaydi’s political memoirs. Global Studies Quarterly. July 2024.
- Re-reading Iraqi politics: New outlooks, expressions, and lenses post-2019. In Erasures in Iraq (edited volume), forthcoming 2026. (co-authored)
- Social Movements as Informal Institutions: New lenses through Tishreen. Third World Quarterly. Under review, 2025.
