Nominees for BRISMES Council (2023-2026)

José Ciro Martínez (University of York)  

José Ciro Martínez is Lecturer in Politics at the University of York. He was previously Junior Research Fellow at Trinity College, University of Cambridge. José has been a proud member of BRISMES since 2014. If elected as a Council member, José hopes to consolidate BRISMES’ commitment to struggling for academic freedom in the Middle East. As a beneficiary of past career mentoring sessions, he is also interested in bolstering early career offerings and outreach events.  

José's research explores the politics of food, welfare, drugs and political authority in the Middle East and North Africa, drawing on archival and ethnographic methods. He is committed to modes of political inquiry attentive to the seemingly ordinary and mundane. Building on more than a year working as a baker in the Jordanian capital, Amman, José’s first book, States of Subsistence, wrestles with theories of performativity to dissect the ways in which welfare provision (in the form of food) works to entrench the state in everyday life.