Jeannie Sowers

Jeannie L. Sowers is Professor of Political Science at the University of New Hampshire. During AY 2021-22, she is the Harold Grinspoon Faculty Leave Fellow at the Crown Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Brandeis University. A scholar of comparative politics of the Middle East, her publications focus on political economy, ecology, and state-society relations in the Middle East and North Africa.
Her most recent book is Modern Egypt: What Everyone Needs to Know (Oxford University Press, 2018), co-authored with Bruce Rutherford. Her book Environmental Politics in Egypt: Experts, Activists, and the State (Routledge, 2012) was awarded Runner-Up for the 2014 Harold and Margaret Sprout Award for the best book in international environmental politics by the International Studies Association. She also co-edited with Chris Toensing The Journey to Tahrir: Revolution, Protest, and Social Change in Egypt (Verso, 2012). She has published articles in International Affairs, Security Dialogue, Climatic Change, Development and Change, International Environmental Agreements, the International Journal of Middle East Studies, Middle East Report, and Current History, among others.
Prof. Sowers holds a BA from Harvard University and a MA and PhD. from Princeton University, and has held postdoctoral fellowships and visiting appointments at Brandeis University, Harvard University and Oxford University. Her research has been funded by Harvard University’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, the Gerda Henkel Stiftung, Duke University Energy Initiative, the American Council of Overseas Research Centers, the Institute for the Study of World Politics, the Center for International Studies and the Center for Regional Studies, Princeton University, and the University of New Hampshire. She serves on the editorial board of Global Environmental Politics and is a contributor and former editorial board member for Middle East Report.
Research Interests
- Conflict and human security
- Egypt
- Environmental politics and social change
- Middle East
- Political Ecology
- Political economy
- Political Science
- Social movements
- War and Society
Courses Taught
- 695: Independent Study
- IA 501: Global Issues Intrntnl Affairs
- IA 695: Independent Study in IA
- POLT 444: Politics &Policy Warming World
- POLT 559: Comp Politics of Middle East
- POLT 740/840: States and Societies Mid East
- POLT 751/851: Comp Environmental Politics
Selected Publications
Sowers, J., & Weinthal, E. (2021). Health and Environmental Tolls of Protractted Conflicts in the Middle East and North Africa. Current History, 120(830), 339-345.
Sowers, J., & Weinthal, E. (2021). Humanitarian challenges and the targeting of civilian infrastructure in the Yemen war. International Affairs, 97(1), 157-177. doi:10.1093/ia/iiaa166
Weinthal, E., & Sowers, J. (2020). The water-energy nexus in the Middle East: Infrastructure, development, and conflict. WILEY INTERDISCIPLINARY REVIEWS-WATER, 7(4). doi:10.1002/wat2.1437
Weinthal, E., & Sowers, J. (2019). Targeting infrastructure and livelihoods in the West Bank and Gaza. International Affairs, 95(2), 319-340. doi:10.1093/ia/iiz015
Sowers, J. L., Weinthal, E., & Zawahri, N. (2017). Targeting environmental infrastructures, international law, and civilians in the new Middle Eastern wars. Security Dialogue, 48(5), 410-430. doi:10.1177/0967010617716615
Sowers, J., Vengosh, A., & Weinthal, E. (2011). Climate change, water resources, and the politics of adaptation in the Middle East and North Africa. CLIMATIC CHANGE, 104(3-4), 599-627. doi:10.1007/s10584-010-9835-4
Sowers, J. (2007). Nature Reserves and Authoritarian Rule in Egypt. The Journal of Environment & Development, 16(4), 375-397. doi:10.1177/1070496507309112