My current research focuses on identity and conspiracy theories. There are two separate projects I am working on that relate to C-SPAM's work. Firstly, I examine conspiracy theories and polarization in North Africa. I am currently working on a paper analyzing the globalization of 'Great Replacement' conspiracy theories in North Africa. Recently, various North African politicians have warned of demographic 'replacement' resulting from Sub-Saharan African immigration. In this paper, I examine how these conspiracy themes have become locally salient. I have also published on how conspiracy theories in Egypt and Tunisia have contributed to the normalization of support for democratic backsliding. Secondly, I have a project exploring the politics of medical skepticism and conspiracy theories, particularly relating to gender. Through archival and social media research, I examine how normative ideas of motherhood and femininity have influenced resistance to institutional medical knowledge. Both of these areas of expertise assess the intersection between increasingly polarized political identities and conspiratorial misinformation.

College of Arts and Sciences profile

Select Publications

Murphey, H.L. (2023). Behind the “Hillary Clinton Spring”: Unpacking the Parti Destourien Libre’s Demonisation of the Arab Uprisings. Oxford Middle East Review, 7(1), 128-154. DOI.

Murphey, H.L. (2024). Conspiracy Theory and the Muslim Brotherhood in Post-Revolutionary Egypt: A Left-Right Convergence? Populism and Conspiracy Theory: Case Studies and Theoretical Perspectives (eds M. Butter, K. Hatzikidi, C. Jeitler, G. Loperfido and L. Turza). Abingdon: Routledge, 197-222. DOI.

Murphey, H.L. (2023). Contemporary Conspirituality: Centering Gender in the Field of Conspiracy Theory Research. Feminist Media Studies, 23(6), 3080-3083. DOI.