Dr
Valeria
Resta
Academic biography
Valeria Resta is a Post-doctoral Researcher at the School of Law and Government working on the HE project INTERFACED (Interfaces for Democratic Participation: Deliberation, Mobilization, and Contestation Since the Onset of the Covid-19 Pandemic). Under the guidance of Prof. Paola Rivetti, Dr. Resta is in charge of studying patterns of participation and mobilization in Tunisia since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. More generally, Dr. Resta works on the politics of the MENA region, with a focus on regime change, authoritarian survival, and the role played by nominally democratic institutions, particularly political parties.
Dr. Resta is the author of Tunisia and Egypt after the Arab Spring: Party Politics in Transitions from Authoritarian Rule (Routledge) and co-author, with Hendrik Kraetzschmar and Francesco Cavatorta, of Coalition Governments and Multiparty Politics in the Arab World (Edinburgh University Press, forthcoming). She also co-edited the Routledge Handbook on Political Parties in the Middle East and North Africa and Routledge Handbook on Elections in the Middle East and North Africa. Her latest works have appeared in Middle East Law and Governance, British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, Politics and Religion, and the Italian Political Science Review.
Dr. Resta is co-chair of the Standing Group on Politics and Religion within the Italian Political Science Association (SISP, from its Italian acronym) and a member of the ECPR standing groups on Religion and Politics; Comparative Political Institutions; and Autocracies and Global Governance.
Dr. Resta regularly reviews submissions for leading scientific journals and has been selected as a Tunisia country expert for the Democratic Accountability and Linkages Project. She frequently attends professional conferences, seminars and workshops in area studies and comparative politics and is often invited to give talks to different audiences, from academics to the general public.
Research interests
My research interests focus on the dynamics of regime change and authoritarian resilience. In particular, I examine the role of political parties and other intermediary institutions in authoritarian and transitional contexts across the Middle East and North Africa. I am also interested in the evolving patterns of political participation and mobilization, exploring their impact both on the inclusion of disenfranchised groups and on the stability of authoritarian regimes.