Marc Owen Jones received his BA in Journalism, Film and Broadcasting from Cardiff University in 2006, and a CASAW-funded MSc in Arab World Studies from the University of Durham in 2010. Following this, he completed his PhD (funded by the AHRC/ESRC) in 2016 at Durham, where he wrote an interdisciplinary thesis on the history of political repression in Bahrain. His thesis won the 2016 AGAPS prize.
He spent much of his childhood in Bahrain, and has also lived in various parts of the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Syria. Prior to joining HBKU, he won a Teach at Tubingen Award at Tuebingen University’s Institute for Political Science, and worked as a Lecturer in the History of the Gulf and Arabian Peninsula at Exeter University’s Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies.
He has edited two books, and an upcoming monograph on political repression in Bahrain with Cambridge University Press. In addition to his academic work, he enjoys communicating his research to broader audiences, and has bylines in the Washington Post, New Statesman, CNN, the Independent, PEN International, and several others. He has also appeared frequently on the BBC, Channel 4 News, and Al Jazeera.
Research Interests
Driven by issues of social justice and a specific area interest in the Gulf, his research spans a number of topics, from historical revisionism, postcolonialism, de-democratization and revolutionary cultural production, to policing, digital authoritarianism and human rights. He is particularly interested in strategies of control that affect people’s life chances in the service of elite power maintenance. Generally speaking, he is interested in forms of political repression and control.
At the moment, he is working on a number of topics, including propaganda and Twitter bots, mapping sectarian hate speech, and archival work related to Bahrain and land appropriation
As an interdisciplinarian, he has a number of facets to his research. He is currently using medium data techniques to examine strategies of sectarian hate speech and propaganda on social media in the Gulf region. Some of this work also looks at the role of Twitter Bots and strategies of informational control used by state and non-state actors.
Experience
Lecturer in the History of Gulf and Arabian Peninsula
Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter, UK
2017 - 2018
Gulf Research Fellow
Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter, UK
2016 - 2017
Researcher and Lecturer
University of Tuebingen, Politikwissenschaft, Germany
2016
Teaching Assistant
School of Geography, Politics and Sociology, Newcastle University, England
2015 - 2016
Teaching Assistant
School of Government and International Affairs, Durham University, England
2013 - 2016
Education
PhD in Government and International Affairs
Durham University, England
2011 - 2016
MSc Arab World Studies
Durham University (Damascus and Edinburgh Universities too), England, Syria, Scotland
2008 - 2010
BA (Hons) Journalism, Film and Broadcasting
Cardiff University, Wales
2003 - 2006
Selected Publications
Political Repression in Bahrain
(Forthcoming). Cambridge, Cambridge University Press2018
Gulfization of the Arab World
Jones M, Porter R, Valeri M2018
Bahrain's Uprising: Resistance and Repression in the Gulf
London, Zed Books Ltd Jones MO and Shehabi A (eds)2015
Propaganda, fake news, and fake trends: the role of Twitter bots in the Qatar Gulf Crisis
International Journal of Communication, Special Issue on Gulf Crisis (Forthcoming)2019
Nation branding and celebrity diplomacy in Bahrain
Celebrity Studies Full text. DOI. 10.1080/19392397.2017.13120832017
Social media, satire and creative resistance in the Bahrain uprising: from utopian fiction to political satire
Communication and the Public, DOI: 10.1177/2057047317706372 2017
Saudi Intervention, Sectarianism, and De-Democratization in Bahrain’s Uprising
Mapping Sectarian Slurs in the Middle East Twittersphere, Book Series: Politics in Transition
Koyo Shobo Publishers [Japan], Forthcoming2019
Contesting the Iranian Revolution as a turning-point discourse in Bahraini contentious politics
In valeri M, porter R, Jones MO (Eds.) Gulfization of the Arab World: Exeter Critical Gulf Series, Gerlach Press, 87-110. Abstract. Full text. DOI2018
History of Bahrain. In Matthews C (Ed) The Middle East and North Africa 2017
Oxford: Routledge. Full text2017
Social media in the Bahrain Uprising: from hope to despair
In Atanasova D, Reilly P, Veneti A (Eds.) Politics, Protest, Emotion: Interdisciplinary Perspectives, PressBooks [Short]2017
Social Media and Unethical P2P Diplomacy in the Bahrain Uprising
In (Ed) Social Media in the Arab World Communication and Public Opinion in the Gulf States, London: I. B. Tauris, 68-90. 2016
Rotten Apples or Rotten Orchards; Police deviance, brutality and unaccountability in Bahrain
In (Ed) Bahrain's Uprising: Resistance and Repression in the Gulf, London: Zed Books Ltd. 207-2382015
Social Media, Surveillance, and Cyberpolitics in the Bahrain Uprising
In (Ed) , Zed Books Ltd, 239-2622015
A triple execution in Bahrain has provoked national outrage – and international silence
2017
From Geneva to London: How Bahrain Tries to Game Human Rights Accountability in the International Arena
2017
Hacking, bots and information wars in the Qatar spat, Washington Post
2017
How a spate of killings in Bahrain has raised suspicions of state brutality
2017
POLARISED FUTURES? Trump’s visit stokes sectarianism and repression in the Gulf
2016
Automated Sectarianism and Pro-Saudi Propaganda on Twitter
2016
Bahrain’s uprising: resistance and repression in the Gulf [Book Summary]
2015
The More Appalling the Human Rights Record, the Better the Customer at the London Arms Fair
2015
The deepening divide in post-election Bahrain
2015
Why Aren't the Gulf States Taking More Syrian Refugees
2015
ANALYSIS: Bahrain's election - husbands, iPhones and jobs
2014
Bahrain’s celebrity anti-diplomacy
2014
Bahrain's Silent Spring: What happened to the 'Pearl revolution'?
2013
Bahrain's history of political injustice
2013
How the Al Khalifas took a quarter of Bahrain’s wealth
2013
Little hope for Bahrain as world turns away
2013
Putting a price tag on repression
2013
The history of British involvement in Bahrain's internal security
2013
Hacking, bots and information wars in the Qatar spat
Washington DC, Project on Middle East Political Science. Author URL2017
UK New Media Review 2010
Department of Media and Communication Leicester University, Leicester, Department of Media and Communication Leicester University Dickinson R, Atanasova D, Bain J, Campbell V, Gunter B, Matthews J, Saltzis K2011
Political Change in the Arab Gulf States: Stuck in Transition