Theoretically, I am interested in action theory (why do people do what they do?), cultural change (why do people change ideologically and morally?), and solidarity (why do people sometimes develop a sense of responsibility toward each other despite their differences, but at other times these differences lead to brutal conflicts?). I often study these questions using empirical cases from the contemporary Middle East, with an emphasis on historical and global comparisons.

My PhD dissertation studies how peaceful political competition among civilians transforms into violent polarization. More concretely, I study the 2011 Egyptian Revolution to understand why competition among civilian revolutionary allies became violently polarized after they overthrew the head of the existing order. The dissertation is based on an original dataset of official statements issued by Egyptian political groups (2000-2025), interviews with Egyptian political actors across the spectrum, and a wide range of archival materials.

From 2018 to 2025, I studied the political stances of religious intellectuals during the Arab Spring. My work argued that while self-interest can explain some intellectuals' political inconsistencies, moral dilemmas are also crucial in accounting for them. Thus, I propose a new theory to explain why actors experience dilemmas, especially political moral dilemmas between conviction and responsibility ethics. I also show how that dilemma is often resolved in favor of responsibility ethics through threat perception, leading to inconsistency. This tension between conviction and responsibility ethics, or universalist and solidarist ethics, informs my PhD dissertation.