Jonathan Hill

Jonathan Hill has been the director of the Institute of Middle Eastern Studies at King’s College London since 2018. He has held visiting positions at St. Antony’s College, Oxford, and at the Middle East Centre, LSE. He is a member of the publication committee of Libyan Studies, and of the editorial advisory boards of The Middle East Journal, The Journal of North African Studies, and Edinburgh Studies on the Maghreb.

His research sits at the intersection of Area Studies and International History and focuses on the colonial and early postcolonial histories of the French Maghreb. He is particularly interested in the evolution of the region’s nationalist movements, the struggles for independence that they helped launch and sustain, the nation and state building efforts of the region’s early post-independence leaders, and the ideational continuities between the colonial and postcolonial eras. He supervises doctoral students and mentors early career researchers working on similar topics.

These themes are clearly reflected in his current research which looks at sport in Tunisia under the French protectorate. Drawing on original material collected in Tunisian and French archives, it charts and examines how the growth in popularity of modern sports in France from the late 19th century onwards was directly linked to the expansion of the French empire and consolidation of French rule over Tunisia. It then goes on to examine the ways in which Tunisian athletes and spectators became involved in the nationalist movement, and how sports clubs and competitions gave them an opportunity to challenge European settlers and to discuss the future of their country.

Selected publications:

J. N. C. Hill, Sport and Empire in Colonial Tunisia, 1881-1956, Oxford: Oxford University Press (under contract).

------------- (2023) ‘The Second World War and the Evolution of Tunisian Nationalism’, in Ashley Jackson (ed.), National Perspectives on the Global Second World War (Routledge Studies in Second World War History), London and New York: Routledge, pp. 81-90.

------------- & Fatima el Issawi, (2021), ‘Introduction: Media, Accountability and Dissent in the Middle East and North Africa’, The International Journal of Press/Politics, 26: 4, 761-773.

------------- (2019), ‘The Evolution of Authoritarian Rule in Algeria: Linkage versus Organisational Power’, Democratization, 26:8, 1382-1398.

------------- (2019), ‘Imperial Classifications and Anti-Colonial Resistance in North Africa’, Middle Eastern Studies, 55: 3, 464-474.

------------- (2018), ‘Global International Relations and the Arab Spring: The Maghreb’s Challenge to the EU’, Third World Quarterly, 39: 10, 2016-2031.

------------- (2016), Democratisation in the Maghreb, Edinburgh and New York: Edinburgh University Press.

------------- (2012), ‘Remembering the War of Liberation: Legitimacy and Conflict in Contemporary Algeria’, Small Wars and Insurgencies, 23: 1, 4-31.

------------- (2011), ‘Islamism and Democracy in the Modern Maghreb’, Third World Quarterly, 32: 6, 1089-1105.

------------- (2009), Identity in Algerian Politics: The Legacy of Colonial Rule, Boulder, Colorado: Lynne Rienner Publishers.