Associate Professor 
Ph.D. in Foreign Affairs, University of Virginia; M.A. in Arab Studies, Georgetown University; B.A. in Political Science, Mary Washington College
Areas of Specialization:
- Comparative Politics
- International Relations
- Politics of the Middle East
- Environmental Politics
Scholarly Achievements:
Professor Singh’s essays and articles have appeared in numerous journals. He’s written on Middle East politics for Middle East International, Middle East Report, The Digest of Middle East Studies, Small Wars Journal, The Islamic Monthly, Issues in Middle East Studies, Review of Middle East Studies, and others. His environmental writings have appeared in Environment, Space, Place, The Trumpeter: Journal of Ecosophy, and elsewhere. He has received research grants from the Social Science Research Council, the UVA Center on Religion and Democracy, the American Center for Oriental Research, and other institutions.
Professional Activities:
Professor Singh is a co-founder of the Middle East Association’s Committee for Undergraduate
Middle Eastern Studies. Through nongovernmental organizations such as the National
Democratic Institute for International Affairs, The Carter Center, and Democracy International,
Dr. Singh has served as an accredited international observer of elections held in South Africa
(1994), Namibia (1994), Bangladesh (1996), Liberia (1997), Palestine (1996, 2005, and 2006),
and Afghanistan (2009). In 2015, he wrote the final report for the British Foreign
Commonwealth Office’s program promoting participation in political parties and coalitions in
Afghanistan.
Other activities include a feature interview, titled “Reflections on the Arab Spring,” broadcast
on the “With Good Reason” public radio program, and the keynote address for the “Conflict,
Collapsed States, and Social Movements in the Contemporary Middle East and Asia” workshop
organized by the Center for Islamic Area Studies at Kyoto University and Tokyo University of
Foreign Studies. He received UMW’s Giving Tree Award in 2007, and the 2019 John M. Kramer Faculty Award. For six years he also taught a graduate seminar on strategy for the US Naval War College.
Pursuing a separate interest in the environment and land conservation, Professor Singh serves as Chair of the Board of Directors of the non-profit Northern Virginia Conservation Trust (nvct.org). Venues where he’s presented his “green” research include the Environment Virginia Symposium and the annual conference of the International Association for the Study of Environment, Space, and Place. In 2020, he founded the Virginia Conservation Fellowship to promote diversity in environmentalism. He’s currently writing a book about the people and nature of Potomac Creek, VA, where he was raised.
Contact Information:
To contact Professor Singh, send an e-mail to: rsingh@umw.edu