Philip is Visiting Research Fellow at the Council for British Research in the Levant. Formally he was a University Teacher in International Relations at the University of Liverpool. He has taught at both a graduate and undergraduate level at Liverpool, Plymouth and Exeter universities. He completed his PhD, at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies at the University of Exeter in December 2012.

Prior to his PhD, he graduated with a distinction from a Master of Arts programme at Lancaster University’s Richardson Institute for Peace Studies. His previous research work has been into the role of youth in resistance in the West Bank, which was published as a monograph in 2009. Dr. Leech was recently awarded an six-month visiting fellowship at the Council for British Research in the Levant (CBRL) in Jerusalem, he was a research scholar at the CBRL Amman in 2011-12, a Kathryn Davis Fellow at Middlebury Arabic Summer School in 2009 and was awarded the University of Exeter’s Arab and Islamic Studies Studentship 2008-11.

He has published a number of papers including for the Arab Centre for Research and Policy Studies (Doha Institute) in May 2012, the Council for British Research in the Levant Bulletin (2012) and the International Sociological Association (ISA) E-Bulletin (2009). Phil has also written a range of shorter articles for publications such as The Guardian’s Comment is Free, OpenDemocracy, e-International Relations and the Gulf States Newsletter. He writes regularly for Middle East Monitor.

He has two peer reviewed articles forthcoming in 2014, a book in preparation (under contract with Ashgate Publishing House) and has just joined BRISMES' Journal of New Middle Eastern Studies as Editor-at-Large.

On twitter @phil_haqeeqa.