Senior Lecturer: Dr Matthew Gray

Dr Matthew Gray joined the Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies as Senior Lecturer and Graduate Student Adviser in January 2005.

Prior to this appointment he held several positions with the Australian Government, working at the Australian Trade Commission from 1997 to 2002 and the Department of Defence from 2002 to 2004 in a variety of roles, and with the Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs as Director Middle East and Africa from 2004 to early 2005.

Dr Gray completed his doctorate at ANU in 2000, entitled The Relationship between Economic Liberalisation and Tourism in the Contemporary Middle East: A Comparative Political Economy Study of Egypt, Syria and Jordan. He also holds a Master of Arts degree and a Bachelor of Arts degree, both from Macquarie University in Sydney.

Dr Gray has published widely in particular on the politics and political economy of the Middle East in academic journals and edited books; his articles have appeared in journals such as Middle Eastern Studies, Arab Studies Quarterly, Thunderbird International Business Review, and The Journal of South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies. His recent and forthcoming publications include: “Arafat’s Legacy, Abbas’ Challenges”, Australian Journal of International Affairs, 59, 2, June 2005, pp. 127-132; “Islam in the Iraqi and Afghan Constitutions: A Comparative Perspective”, Global Change, Peace & Security (forthcoming February 2007); and “Political Culture, Political Dynamics, and Conspiracism in the Arab Middle East” in Arndt Graf, Schirin Fathi and Ludwig Paul (eds), Orientalism and Conspiracy. Essays in Honor of Sadik al-Azm (London: I. B. Taurus) [Forthcoming].

Dr Gray’s main research interests at present are the politics of conspiracy theories in the Middle East, the politics and political economy of tourism in the Arab world, and political change and constitutionalism in Iraq and Afghanistan. He also maintains a strong interest in the Arab-Israeli conflict and politics in Iraq.

At CAIS, Dr Gray teaches or is involved with a number of courses at both undergraduate and postgraduate level. He is convener for MEAS2105 The Political Economy of the Middle East; MEAS8108 Issues of Development in the Middle East; MEAS8112 Dynamics of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict; and MEAS8113 The Gulf Strategic Environment. He is also involved in POLS2031 Politics in the Middle East and POLS2070 Politics in Central and West Asia.

Dr Gray can provide supervision at both Masters sub-thesis and doctorate levels on a variety of subjects, especially on topics related to the politics of the contemporary Arab Middle East, including on Arab political dynamics, military conflict in the Arab world, the international relations of the Arab states, the Arab-Israeli conflict, and political economy and economic reform in the Middle East and West Asia. He currently supervises about a dozen graduate research students on these and related areas.