Skip to main content
Back to King's College London homepage
Craig Larkin

Dr Craig Larkin

Reader in Middle East Politics and Peace and Conflict Studies

  • Director of the Centre for the Study of Divided Societies (CSDS)

Research interests

  • Conflict
  • Politics
  • Security

Biography

Dr Craig Larkin is a Reader in Middle East Politics and Peace and Conflict Studies and Director of the Centre for the Study of Divided Societies (CSDS) at King’s College London. He is Co-Convenor of the War Studies MA Programme, Conflict Resolution in Divided Societies. He is also a Research Lead on Memory and Conflict [Violent and Peaceful Behaviours] for the FCDO funded Cross-Border Conflict Evidence, Policy and Trends (XCEPT) research programme. Prior to joining King’s he was an ESRC Research Fellow at the Department of Politics, University of Exeter working on an ESRC funded project, ‘Conflict in Cities and the Contested State’ (2008-2012).

Craig holds a PhD in Middle East Studies from the University of Exeter (Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, 2009), an MA in Criminology and Criminal Justice (LLM, 1999) and a BA(Hons) in Law and Politics (LLB, 1998) from Queen’s University Belfast. He also studied Arabic at Damascus University (2002-2004) and worked in community development projects in Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq.

He is author of Memory and Conflict in Lebanon: remembering and forgetting the past (Routledge: London and NY, 2012); co-author of The Struggle for Jerusalem’s Holy Places (Routledge: London and NY, 2013) and co-editor of The Alawis of Syria: War, Faith and Politics in the Levant with Michael Kerr (Hurst/Oxford University Press, 2015). He has also written extensively on memory and violence, urban geopolitics, Islamist movements and post-conflict politics. He is Co-editor of Hurst/OUP Book Series – Urban Conflict, Divided Societies.

Research Interests

Craig’s research is interdisciplinary and comparative, examining the intersection of conflict, identity and urban space in the contemporary Middle East.He is particularly interested in:

  • Memory and transitional justice in post conflict settings
  • The spatio-politics of ethnically and religiously contested urban space
  • Islamist movements, religion and identity politics

For more details, please see his full research profile.

Publications

For a full list of publications, please consult the Research Portal at King’s or Craig’s page on academia.edu.

Books

  • The Alawis of Syria: War, Faith and Politics in the Levant, with Michael Kerr (eds.) (Hurst/Oxford University Press, 2015)
  • The Struggle for Jerusalem’s Holy Places, co-authored book with Mick Dumper, Wendy Pullan, Lefkos Kyriacou and Maximilian Sternberg. (Routledge: London and NY, 2013)
  • Memory and Conflict in Lebanon: remembering and forgetting the past (Routledge: London and NY, January 2012); Paperback edition April 2015

Journal articles

Book chapters

  • Craig Larkin. "Ethnic Identity, Memory, and Sites of Violence." The Oxford Handbook of the Sociology of the Middle East. Online publication Dec 2020,
  • ‘Religious Pluralism, Interfaith Dialogue and Post-war Lebanon’ (with Gutkowski and Daou) in Jan-Jonathan Bock, John Fahy and Sami Everett (eds.) Emergent Religious Pluralisms (Palgrave, 2019), 95-122.
  • ‘The Alawis of Tripoli: identity, violence and urban geopolitics‘ (with Olivia Midha) in The Alawis of Syria: War, Faith and Politics in the Levant by M.Kerr and C.Larkin (eds.) (Hurst/OUP, 2015) 
  • ‘Speaking in the Silence: Youthful negotiations of Beirut’s postwar spaces and memories’, Locating Urban Conflicts: Ethnicity, Nationalism, Religion by W. Pullan and B. Ballie (eds.) (London: Palgrave MacMillan, April 2013), 93-114. 
  • ‘Lebanese Postmemory’ in Arab youth: Social Mobilization in times of Risk, R. Khalaf and S. Khalaf (eds.), Saqi Press (December 2011), 127-145.
  • ‘Martyrs & Massacres: Memorializing Violence in Beirut’, Capturing Urban Conflicts, Conflict in Cities, 2011 ( http://issuu.com/lefkos/docs/beirut_-_martyrs_and_massacres)

Teaching

PhD Supervision

Dr Larkin welcomes enquires from PhD candidates seeking supervision in areas connected to his research interests

Research

SSSCSDS
Centre for the Study of Divided Societies

The Centre for the study of Divided Societies provides a global focal point for teaching and research on ethno-national problems that divide and unite societies across the modern world.

Arts and conflict hub page
Arts & Conflict Hub

The Arts & Conflicts hub uses artistic mediums to communicate, teach and research the complexities of conflict

Events

21Feb

Rethinking Resilience: Social reconstruction in Iraq and Ukraine

This webinar will bring together experts on Iraq and Ukraine to discuss the challenges of reconstructing a post-conflict society.

Please note: this event has passed.

20Feb

Reimagining Mosul: The Role of Competing Memory Narratives in Post-Conflict Reconstruction

Dr Craig Larkin and Dr Inna Rudolf explore how competing narratives of a traumatic past are shaping reconstruction initiatives in Mosul, Iraq, and how these...

Please note: this event has passed.

11May

Shattered by Terror: Rebuilding Social Confidence in post-ISIS Mosul with Omar Mohammed (Mosuleye)

An event as part of the CSDS (Centre for the Study of Divided Societies) Seminar Series with Omar Mohammed

Please note: this event has passed.

10Mar

Peace as Violence

Professor Brandon Hamber will explore how peace processes, and the aftermath, are experienced by survivors and former combatants.

Please note: this event has passed.

17Mar

Prisons and Terrorism

Rajan Basra will analyse the role prisons can play in radicalising and reforming people.

Please note: this event has passed.

20Jan

Getting involved in Political Violence: Irish Stories

Neil Ferguson looks at political violence in Ireland.

Please note: this event has passed.

09Dec

Understanding the Current Dynamics of Eastern Syria: Tribes, Islamists & Kurdish Autonomy

Hassan Hassan discusses the current dynamics of Eastern Syria.

Please note: this event has passed.

Research

SSSCSDS
Centre for the Study of Divided Societies

The Centre for the study of Divided Societies provides a global focal point for teaching and research on ethno-national problems that divide and unite societies across the modern world.

Arts and conflict hub page
Arts & Conflict Hub

The Arts & Conflicts hub uses artistic mediums to communicate, teach and research the complexities of conflict

Events

21Feb

Rethinking Resilience: Social reconstruction in Iraq and Ukraine

This webinar will bring together experts on Iraq and Ukraine to discuss the challenges of reconstructing a post-conflict society.

Please note: this event has passed.

20Feb

Reimagining Mosul: The Role of Competing Memory Narratives in Post-Conflict Reconstruction

Dr Craig Larkin and Dr Inna Rudolf explore how competing narratives of a traumatic past are shaping reconstruction initiatives in Mosul, Iraq, and how these...

Please note: this event has passed.

11May

Shattered by Terror: Rebuilding Social Confidence in post-ISIS Mosul with Omar Mohammed (Mosuleye)

An event as part of the CSDS (Centre for the Study of Divided Societies) Seminar Series with Omar Mohammed

Please note: this event has passed.

10Mar

Peace as Violence

Professor Brandon Hamber will explore how peace processes, and the aftermath, are experienced by survivors and former combatants.

Please note: this event has passed.

17Mar

Prisons and Terrorism

Rajan Basra will analyse the role prisons can play in radicalising and reforming people.

Please note: this event has passed.

20Jan

Getting involved in Political Violence: Irish Stories

Neil Ferguson looks at political violence in Ireland.

Please note: this event has passed.

09Dec

Understanding the Current Dynamics of Eastern Syria: Tribes, Islamists & Kurdish Autonomy

Hassan Hassan discusses the current dynamics of Eastern Syria.

Please note: this event has passed.