Faculty and Researchers

Richard Nielsen

Faculty Director, MIT-MENA Program

Associate Professor of Political Science

Richard Nielsen

Email

rnielsen@mit.edu

Website

https://polisci.mit.edu/people/richard-nielsen

Expertise

Middle East politics

International relations

Comparative politics

Religion

Political violence

Publications

Koehler-Derrick, Gabriel, Richard Nielsen, and David Romney. “The Supply of Conspiracism in State-Controlled Media.” The Journal of Politics, 2025.

Tabaar, Mohammad Ayatollahi, Reyko Huang, Kanchan Chandra, Evgeny Finkel, Richard A Nielsen, Mara Redlich Revkin, Manuel Vogt, and Elisabeth Jean Wood. “How Religious Are ‘Religious’ Conflicts?” International Studies Review 25, no. 3 (2023).

Nielsen, Richard A, Melani Cammett, and Pauline Jones. “The Rise and Impact of Muslim Women Preaching Online.” In The Oxford Handbook of Politics in Muslim Societies. Oxford University Press, 2022.

Krause, Peter, Ora Szekely, Mia Bloom, Fotini Christia, Sarah Zukerman Daly, Chappell Lawson, Zoe Marks, Richard Nielsen, et al. “COVID-19 and Fieldwork: Challenges and Solutions.” PS, Political Science & Politics 54, no. 2 (2021): 264–69.

Roberts, Margaret E, Brandon M Stewart, and Richard A Nielsen. “Adjusting for Confounding with Text Matching.” American Journal of Political Science 64, no. 4 (2020): 887–903.

Nielsen, Richard A. “Women’s Authority in Patriarchal Social Movements: The Case of Female Salafi Preachers.” American Journal of Political Science 64, no. 1 (2020): 52–66.

Deadly Clerics: Blocked Ambition and the Paths to Jihad

Cambridge University Press

Deadly Clerics: Blocked Ambition and the Paths to Jihad

News

MIT Human Insight Collaborative launches SHASS Faculty Fellows program

Volha Charnysh, Ford Career Development Associate Professor of Political Science and member of the Center's Global Diversity Lab, and Richard Nielsen, associate professor of political science and faculty director of the Center's MIT-Arab World program, are among the six faculty members selected as the inaugural SHASS Faculty Fellows. The fellowship will allow selected faculty to focus on their research, build community, and pursue mentorship opportunities.

February 19, 2025

MIT Human Insight Collaborative launches SHASS Faculty Fellows program

Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Building E40-400
1 Amherst Street
Cambridge, MA 02142

cis-info@mit.edu