BiographyBassam Haddad is Director of the Middle East and Islamic Studies Program and Associate Professor at the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University. He is the author of Business Networks in Syria: The Political Economy of Authoritarian Resilience (Stanford University Press, 2011) and co-editor of A Critical Political Economy of the Middle East (Stanford University Press, 2021). Bassam is Co-Founder/Editor of Jadaliyya Ezine and Executive Director of the Arab Studies Institute. He serves as Founding Editor of the Arab Studies Journal and the Knowledge Production Project. He is co-producer/director of the award-winning documentary film, About Baghdad, and director of the acclaimed series Arabs and Terrorism. Bassam serves on the Board of the Arab Council for the Social Sciences and is Executive Producer of Status Audio Magazine and Director of the Middle East Studies Pedagogy Initiative (MESPI). He received MESA's Jere L. Bacharach Service Award in 2017 for his service to the profession. Currently, Bassam is working on his second Syria book titled Understanding The Syrian Tragedy: Regime, Opposition, Outsiders (forthcoming, Stanford University Press).
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Research Interests and CVMy research interests center around three main areas:
My future research agenda will continue to evolve as I begin to conclude my focus on political economy of development, which is also the subject of my second single-authored book. In 2011, my first book was published, Business Networks in Syria: The Political Economy of Authoritarian Resilience (Stanford University Press, November 2011). My book examines the maturation of state-business networks in the reforming economies of the Middle East, using Syria as a case study. I investigate how state and business actors come together in informal economic networks and shape patterns of state intervention, including economic and institutional change. While Peter Evans’ notion of “embedded autonomy” tells us what happens when we have coherent/autonomous bureaucracies collaborating with business actors to produce collectively beneficial outcomes, the Syrian case tells us what happens when penetrated bureaucracies collude with business actors to produce tailored economic policies that benefit the few at the expense of ordinary citizens and the economy as a whole. Much more than genuine reform, the resulting dynamic in Syria has been the organization and reorganization of rent-seeking opportunities in the context of protracted economic liberalization. Mobile: (703) 887-5257 • Office: 703-993-2962 • E-mail: [email protected] PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS Teaching and Research 9/2007-Present Associate Professor at Schar School of Policy and Government and Director of the Middle East and Islamic Studies Program, George Mason University 9/2002-Present Visiting Professor, Georgetown University 2011-2014 Visiting Scholar, Stanford University, Center for Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law 1/20010-6/2010 Visiting Scholar, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Middle East. 9/2004-8/2007 Assistant Professor, St. Joseph’s University 1/2006-6/2007 Scholar in Residence, University of Pennsylvania Pedagogy and Knowledge Production 9/1992-Present Executive Director, Arab Studies Institute, www.ArabStudiesInstitute.org 9/1992-Present Founding Editor, Arab Studies Journal, www.ArabStudiesJournal.org 4/2010-Present Co-Founded/Editor, Jadaliyya Ezine, www.Jadaliyya.com 9/2009-Present Director, Knowledge Production Project, www.KnowledgeProduction.com 9/2016-Present Director, Middle East Studies Pedagogy Initiative, www.MESPI.org 4/2015-Present Co-Founder, Political Economy Project, www.PolititcalEconomyProject.org 07/2012-Present Founding Editor, Tadween Publishing 3/2017-Present Co-Project Manager, Salon Syria Project, www.SalonSyria.com Film and Audio 9/2002-Present Founder, Quilting Point Productions, www.QuiltingPoint.com 2/2003-Present Research-Based Documentary Director (About Baghdad, 2004), (Arabs and Terrorism, 2006), (The “Other” Threat, 2007) 9/2014-Present Executive Producer, Status/الوضع Podcast, www.StatusHour.com Service 3/2013-Present Board of Trustees Member, Arab Council for the Social Sciences 9/2009-5/2015 Editorial Committee, MERIP, www.merip.org 11/2005-11/2006 Nominating Board Member, Middle East Studies Association of North America 2/2017-3/2017 Program Committee, Middle East Studies Association of North America EDUCATION Georgetown University Ph.D., with Distinction, Department of Government 5/2002 Major Field: Comparative Politics Minor Fields: Political Theory, Middle East Politics Dissertation Comm.: Daniel Brumberg, Michael Hudson, Stephen King Dissertation: “The Economic Price Of Regime Security: Mistrust, State-Business Networks, And Economic Stagnation In Syria, 1986-2000” Georgetown University M.A., Arab Politics, Center for Contemporary Arab Studies 5/1994 Thesis: “Political Islam and Secularism” George Mason University B.A. in International Relations 8/1992 PEER-REVIEWED PUBLICATIONS Peer-Reviewed Books [2018-19] Understanding the Syrian Tragedy: Regime, Opposition Outsiders [Stanford University Press, 2020] [2019-2020] The Political Economy of the Middle East, Co-Editor with Sherene Seikaly and Joel Beinin (Stanford University Press, 2020) 2012 Business Networks in Syria: The Political Economy of Authoritarian Resilience (Stanford University Press, 2012). 2012 Principal Co-Editor with Rosie Bsheer and Ziad Abu-Rish, The Dawn of the Arab Uprisings: End of an Old Order? (London, Pluto Press, 2012). 2012 Co-Editor with Adel Iskandar, Mediating the Arab Uprisings (Washington DC, Tadween Publishing, 2012). 2013 Co-Editor with Ziad Abu-Rish, Critical Voices: A Collection of Interviews From and On the Middle East (Washington DC, Tadween Publishing, 2015). Peer-Reviewed Articles 4/2013 Symposium on “Teaching About the Middle East Since the Arab Uprisings,” Leading Editor and Co-Author of Introduction and article on “Media Sources and the Arab Uprisings,” PS Political Science, Spring 2013. 9/2012 “Syria’s State Bourgeoisie: An Organic Backbone for the Regime,” Middle East Critique, Vol. 21, Issue 3 (Fall 2012). 5/2012 “Syria, the Arab Uprisings, and the Political Economy of Authoritarian Resilience,” Interface Journal, Vol. 4 (1), 2012, pp. 113-130 3/2012 “Syria’s Stalemate: The Limits of Regime Resilience,” Middle East Policy, Vol. XIX, No. 1, Spring 2012, pp. 85-95. 6/2011 “The Political Economy of Syria: Realities and Challenges,” Middle East Policy, Vol XVIII, No. 2, Summer 2011, pp. 46-61. Peer Reviewed Book Chapters 2015 “The Fragmented State of the Syrian Opposition,” in Mehran Kamrava, ed., Beyond the Arab Spring: The Evolving Ruling Bargain in the Middle East (Hurst, 2015). 2012 "Behind the Resilience of the Syrian Regime," David McMurray and Amanda Ufheil-Somers, eds., The Arab Revolts: The Political Economy of Militant Democracy in the Middle East (Indiana University Press, 2012). 2012 “Business Associations and the New Nexus of Power in Syria,” in Paul Aarts and Francesco Cavatorta, eds. Civil Society in Syria and Iran: Activism in Authoritarian Contexts (Lynne Reiner, 2012) 8/2009 “Enduring Legacies: The Politics of Private Sector Development in Syria,” in Demystifying Syria, ed Fred Lawson (London: SOAS-School of Oriental and African Studies, London Middle East Institute), pp. 29-55. 5/2004 “The Formation and Development of Economic Networks in Syria: Implications for Economic and Fiscal Reforms, 1986-2000,” in Networks of Privilege: The Politics of Economic Reform in the Middle East, ed Steven Heydemann (New York: Palgrave-St. Martin's Press, 2004), pp. 39-78. |