Dr. Mark C. Thompson is Assistant Professor of Middle East Studies at King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM), Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, where he has been teaching undergraduate courses in International Relations and Globalization since 2012. He is also Senior Associate Fellow at King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies (KFCRIS) in Riyadh. Mark has lived and worked in Saudi Arabia since 2001 for diverse institutions such as Saudi Arabian Airlines, the Saudi Arabian National Guard, and Prince Sultan University.
Mark holds a Ph.D. from the Institute of Arab & Islamic Studies, University of Exeter, UK. His principal research areas are Saudi socio-political development and societal transformation and he has published on topics such as Saudi youth issues and challenges facing Saudi women leaders in publications such as the Journal of Arabian Studies; Asian Affairs; Middle Eastern Studies; Middle East Policy, Gulf Affairs and POMEPS Studies. In addition, he published a book with I.B. Tauris “Saudi Arabia and the Path to Political Change: National Dialogue and Civil Society” (2014). Mark is also the co-editor of the IB Tauris book entitled “Policy-Making in the GCC: State, Citizens and Institutions” (2017) with Dr. Neil Quilliam from Chatham House based on their Gulf Research Meeting workshop in 2015 as well as providing a chapters on Saudi Arabia for several edited books such as “Public Brain Power: Civil Society and Resource Management” Palgrave Macmillan (2017).
Mark’s book for Cambridge University Press “Being Young Male and Saudi: Identity and Politics in a Globalized Kingdom” about societal issues and change from the perspective of young Saudi men will be published in October 2019. Mark makes numerous presentations at international conferences, workshops and seminars.