Hicham Safieddine
Thematic Research Area
Education
Ph.D. in Middle East Studies, University of Toronto
M.A. in Political Science, York University
M.A. in Economics, University of Rochester, NY
About
Hicham Safieddine is Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair in the History of the Modern Middle East. He researches financial, economic and intellectual history (19th and 20th centuries) with a particular emphasis on the MENA region.
He is currently examining the emergence and transformation of global and national monetary regimes and financial systems under capitalist expansion, debt, war, colonial conquest, national liberation and revolution.
He also works on the history of economic thought, as well as modern Arab and Islamic thought, with an emphasis on the age of anti-colonial national liberation in the mid-20th century.
In addition to his academic research and teaching, he is the co-founder of e-zines Al-Akhbar English and The Legal Agenda’s English Edition. His press writings have appeared in The Toronto Star, Al-Jazeera English, The Monthly Review, Le Monde Diplomatique, Al-Adaab, Middle East Eye, Egypt Independent, Assafir, Jadaliyya, and Al-Ahram Weekly.
Teaching
Research
Political Economy of the Middle East
Modern Arab and Islamic Thought
Economic Thought and Theory
Global Financial Order
Currency Regimes, Private Banking, and Colonial Finance
Publications
Books
Banking on the State: The Financial Foundations of Lebanon (Stanford University Press, 2019).
Mahdi Amel, Arab Marxism and National Liberation: Selected Writings (Brill, 2020). Editor
The Clarion of Syria: A Patriot’s Call to Overcome the Civil War of 1860 (University of California Press, 2019). Co-editor
Dawlat al-Masarif: Tarikh Lubnan al-Mali (Markaz Dirasat al-Wihdah al-Arabiyyah, 2021). Arabic Translation
Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles
“Mahdi Amel: On Colonialism, Sectarianism, and Hegemony,” Middle East Critique (vol. 30, No. 1, 2021).
Co-authored, “Lebanon’s al-Akhbar and Radical Press Culture: Toward an Intellectual History of the Contemporary Arab Left,” The Arab Studies Journal (vol. XXIV, no.1, Spring 2016).
Book Chapters
“Arab Socialism” in The Cambridge History of Socialism (Cambridge University Press, 2023). Co-authored w Abdel-Razzaq Takriti.
“The Anti-Colonial Intellectual”, in Arab Marxism and National Liberation: Selected Writings of Mahdi Amel (Brill, 2020).
“The War of 1860: Roots and Ramifications” in The Clarion of Syria: A Patriot’s Call to Overcome the Civil War of 1860 (University of California Press, 2019). Co-authored
“Butrus al-Bustani: From Protestant Convert to Ottoman Patriot and Arab Reformer” in The Clarion of Syria: A Patriot’s Call to Overcome the Civil War of 1860 (University of California Press, 2019). Co-authored
Book Reviews
Dylan Baun’s Winning Lebanon: Youth Politics, Populism, and the Production of Sectarian Violence, IJMES, forthcoming.
Kamal Dib’s Intra Wa Hitan al-Mal, Arab Studies Journal (2017)
Graduate Supervision
I welcome graduate student applicants interested in researching a topic that broadly falls within the following fields:
Financial History (Global, 18th to 20th century)
Modern Intellectual History (Economic/Arab/Islamic)
Political Economy and State-formation of the late and post-Ottoman Arab region (19th and 20th centuries)
Prospective Ph.D. applicants should email me the following:
- C.V.
- Research Writing Sample (Published or unpublished)
- Research Proposal (One page, MS Word)
- University Transcript (Official or unofficial)