After a Master's Degree in Comparative Politics, with speciality on Arab and Muslim worlds, I received a PhD in 2005 from Sciences Po Paris. My work dealt with nation-building and political legitimacy in the Sultanate of Oman since 1970.

I was 'Jean Monnet' Fellow at the European University Institute of Florence (Italy) in 2005-2006 and then 'Marie Curie' Research Fellow at the IAIS between 2007 and 2009. In 2009-10, I held a position of Teaching Fellow in politics and constitutional law at the University of La Rochelle (France) and was concomitantly Honorary Research Fellow at the IAIS. In September 2010, I took up my current position at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies.

I was the Director of Exeter's Centre for Gulf Studies for 10 years (2013-2023).