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Staff Profile

Dr Una McGahern

Senior Lecturer in Politics

  • Email: una.mcgahern@ncl.ac.uk
  • Address: Room 4.22
    Politics Department
    Henry Daysh Building
    Newcastle University
    NE1 7RU
Background

Qualifications

  • HEA Full Fellow (Newcastle University)
  • DPhil in Government and International Affairs (Durham University)
  • MA in Research Methods of the Middle East (Durham University)
  • BA in Applied Languages and Intercultural Studies (Dublin City University) 


Journal Editorships

2023-2025, Editorial Board Member for Mobilities

2017-2018, Associate Editor for Politics


Disciplinary roles

2023-2027: Trustee for the British International Studies Association (BISA)



Research

Overview

My research examines the relationship between security, mobility and space in the Middle East with a focus on Palestine/Israel.

The security strand of my work examines patterns of insecurity and violence relating to minority policy, policing, protest policing and the practice of siege warfare. My first book, Palestinian Christians in Israel (Routledge 2011), supported by funding from the ESRC and the Sir Peter Ustinov Prejucide Scholarship Fund, interrogated the policing of intra-communal violence in the Galilee region. Subsequent research, supported in part by an Early Career Leverhulme Fellowship, examined the impact of Israeli state policy and policing on Palestinian communities in Israel. This was published in Mediterranean Politics (2010), International Political Sociology (2016), Security Dialogue (2016) and Political Geography (2017). More recent work exploring modern practice of siege warfare in Palestine has been published in the Journal of Genocide Research (2026).

A second strand of my research focuses on mobility, specifically the everyday cross-border movements of Palestinian youth. This includes work examining the socio-political significance of recreational group running in the city of Jerusalem (Mobilities 2019) and the cross-border movements of Palestinian students from Israel seeking a higher education at universities in the West Bank (Mobilities 2023). This work opened up a third strand of research into the place of Palestinian universities in struggles for spatial and mobility justice, with a particular focus on the university campuses of the Arab American University of Palestine in Jenin (Political Geography 2024), Khadouri campus in Tulkarem (Geopolitics 2025) and Al Quds University in Jerusalem (Mobilities 2026). 

My current research continues to examine academic mobilities, spaces and futures in Palestine/Israel, with a growing interest in understanding the role of conflict-induced academic (im)mobilities in shaping the geopolitics of higher education across the Middle East and North Africa.


Current Funded Projects

  • 2026-2027: Independent Social Research Foundation (ISRF) Flexible Grant for Small Groups on 'Liberating Youth: Age, Generation and Anti/Colonialism', Co-PI; Project Leads: Maya Nguyen (SOAS) & Stacey Hynd (Exeter) (£7,484)


Recently Funded Projects

  • 2025-2026: Council for British Research in the Levant (CBRL) Project Award on 'Higher Education and the Right to the City in Jerusalem,' PI w/ Rawan Asali Nuseibeh, UCL (£6,993.45)
  • 2025-2026: ESRC Impact Acceleration Account award on 'Student Encampment as Political Formation: Learning in Solidarity, Solidarity in Learning', PI w/ Jemima Repo, Newcastle University (£2,498.35)


Areas of potential PhD research supervision (not exhaustive):

  • Security, mobility and space
  • Mobility and spatial (in)justice
  • Borders, border spaces, cross-border mobilities
  • Geopolitics of higher education
  • The politics of everyday life 
  • Contentious politics, social movements and protest
  • Ethnopolitics, ethnic minority rights and struggles
  • Urban spaces, policing and surveillance
  • Ethnographic research methods

I welcome applications for PhD supervision in any of the above areas.


Current PhD co-supervision:

  • Michael Mo (2024-present) 'The interplay between affective polarisation among elites and the public in social movements: The case of Hong Kong and Taiwan' 
  • Tamara Tamimi (2021-present) 'Delivering Justice for Palestinians through International Law? Between Expectations and Challenges' (Queen's University Belfast)


Past PhD co-supervision (completed PhD projects):

  • Zena Agha (2026) 'Colonial cartography in Palestine-Israel and the decolonising potential of counter-maps' (Newcastle University)
  • Will Lloyd (2025) 'No Woman is Limited: An Ethnography of Running, Feminism and Development in Nepal' (Durham University)
  • Sarina Theys (2018) 'The Soft Power of Non-Western Small States: The Cases of Bhutan and Qatar' (Newcastle University)



Teaching

UG Teaching

POL2012: Politics of the Middle East (120 students)

POL3060: Politics of Protest in the Middle East (90 students)


MA Teaching

POL8044: Geopolitics (20 students)


Teaching Awards and Nominations

I have received multiple student nominations to NUSU Teaching Excellence Awards in the categories of ‘Taught Supervisor of the Year’ (2021) and ‘Outstanding Contribution to Teaching’ in HASS (2024). In 2025, I was shortlisted for Outstanding Contribution to Teaching (HASS) in the NUSU Teaching Excellence awards.

Publications