Dr Leonie Fleischmann

Overview

Dr Fleischmann is a Senior Lecturer in International Politics and Education Lead in the Department of International Politics. Her research explores social movements, civil resistance and human rights activism, with longstanding expertise in Israel and Palestine and a developing interest in how movements across the political spectrum imagine and contest the future.

She joined the Department as a lecturer in September 2016, having completed her PhD in the Department in 2015, and was a Research Fellow at the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict in 2017–2018. She is the author of The Israeli Peace Movement: Anti-Occupation Activism and Human Rights since the Al-Aqsa Intifada (I.B. Tauris, 2019), which examines how Israeli activists have responded to changing realities on the ground. The book argues that, despite the stagnation of the formal peace process, civil society groups acting in solidarity with Palestinians and human rights organisations documenting the occupation continue to mobilise and challenge the status quo.

Her current research develops the concept of 'decolonial solidarity', asking how solidarity enacted on behalf of others both draws on and reproduces the very power relations it sets out to challenge. She convenes the BISA–ISA workshop series Solidarity Across Power and Difference. Recent work examines the tensions of solidarity across power asymmetries, arguing that privilege is not simply a source of domination but a relational and contingent resource that can be strategically leveraged within contentious politics. A current project examines the UK pro-Palestinian movement that emerged after October 2023 through qualitative frame analysis, developing the concept of 'frame drift'. A second, emerging strand turns to political futurity, how social movements construct visions of the future, and how that future-making reshapes democracy. Her empirical work draws on interviews with activists, archival research and analysis of activist materials, in cases including Israel/Palestine, South Africa and Canada; parts of this research have been funded by the International Centre on Nonviolent Conflict and City Pump-Priming.

As Education Lead, Dr Fleischmann leads on teaching and assessment across the Department, with a particular focus on active and inclusive pedagogy, teaching at scale, and assessment design in the age of generative AI.

Prior to joining City, she taught International Politics and International Development at SOAS, King's College London and the University of Roehampton. Her research has been published in International Studies Review, Government and Opposition and Peace & Change, among other peer-reviewed journals.

Dr Fleischmann is a regular media commentator on Israel/Palestine, the war in Gaza and Middle East politics. She contributes written and broadcast analysis to outlets including the BBC and Al Jazeera, and is a frequent contributor to The Conversation.

Qualifications

• PhD, City University London, London, United Kingdom
• MA International Relations, King's College London, London, United Kingdom

Postgraduate training

• Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education, City, University of London, London, United Kingdom

Teaching

Educational Leadership

Programme Director, MA International Politics and Human Rigthts

Undergraduate Teaching

IP3025 Global Ethics
IP3017 Final Year Research Project

Postgraduate Teaching

IPM117 Global Ethics
IMP118 Human Rights and the Transformation of World Politics
SAM005 Qualitative Research Methods

Research Interests

- Israeli-Palestinian conflict
- The role of civil society in conflict and peace building
- Nonviolent resistance
- Social Movement Theory
- Human Rights activism

Current Projects

- Transformation of Israeli Peace/Anti-occupation Activism
- Civil resistance and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
- The role of Human Rights in conflict and peace building

Publications by category