Dr Antonella Acinapura

Antonella Acinapura is a Sasakawa Peace Foundation Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Oxford School of Global and Area Studies (OSGA), affiliated with the Middle East Centre at St Antony’s College. She holds a Ph.D. in Politics and International Relations from Queen’s University Belfast, an MA in Languages, Law, Economics and Institutions of Asia and North Africa from Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, and a BA in Oriental Studies from Sapienza University of Rome. Before joining Oxford, she taught undergraduate and postgraduate courses on contemporary politics and of the Middle East, politics and international relations at the University of Salford and Queen’s University Belfast.

Antonella’s research focuses on the relationship between political violence and collective mobilization, armed groups and social movements, and armed and unarmed resistance. She is currently writing a book provisionally titled Violence, Nonviolence, and the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine during the Second Intifada: Repertoires of Actions, Tactics, and Framing. The book investigates how collective identities, collective emotions, and the construction of symbolic meanings influence armed groups to alternate between violent and nonviolent repertoires of action during ongoing conflicts. She is also conducting scholarly research on the ‘aesthetics of protest’—including songs, slogans, chants, images, posters, and more—in the context of armed resistance.

Research Interests: Social Movements, Contentious Politics, Political Violence, Militant Islamism, the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, The Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine, Middle East Politics.