Dr Asma Abdi (She / Her)

I am a Lecturer in Middle East Politics and International Relations at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies. My research and teaching sit at the intersection of international political economy, feminist theory, and post/decolonial approaches. Broadly, my work explores themes of social reproduction, intimacy, informal economies, women’s informal labour, and transnational feminist solidarity, with a regional focus on the Middle East. Specifically,  my doctoral research examines the shifting gendered dimensions of labour, social reproduction, and survival in Iran following the intensification of international sanctions in the early 2010s. Through this work, I also advance a feminist decolonial understanding of economic sanctions as an underexplored economic tool of international conflict.

My research has received several awards, including an Honourable Mention from the British International Studies Association (BISA), Colonial/Postcolonial/Decolonial Working Group's Early Career Researcher Paper Prize, for my paper "Towards a Feminist Geopolitics of Sanctions and Gendered Insecurity" in 2022.  My PhD thesis was awarded the 2025 Political Studies Association (PSA) Elizabeth Wiskemann Prize for the Study of (In)Equality and Social Justice, and has also been nominated for the 2025 Development Studies Association (DSA) PhD Prize.

I joined the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies in October 2024. Before that, I held an Early Career Fellowship at the Institute of Advanced Study, University of Warwick (2023–2024). I completed my PhD in Politics and International Studies at the University of Warwick in 2023, funded by the International Chancellor's Scholarship. I also hold a double MA in Women’s and Gender Studies from the University of Hull (UK) and the University of Lodz (Poland), funded by a two-year Erasmus Mundus scholarship.

At Exeter, I teach International Relations and Middle East Politics, and convene two final-year undergraduate modules: Politics of Authoritarian Rule and Armed Islamist Movements.