Biography
Hicham Safieddine holds a PhD in Middle East Studies from the University of Toronto, an MA in Political Science from York University, Canada, and an MA in Economics from The University of Rochester, New York.
Hicham’s current research explores the history of financial colonization, including the creation of central banks, across the Global South with particular emphasis on Arab societies and states. He is also researching the history of Arab economic thought in the post-WWII period and its relationship to contemporaneous notions of modernization and development.
In addition to his academic research and teaching, Hicham is the co-founder of e-zines Al-Akhbar English and The Legal Agenda’s English Edition. His public 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.
Areas of research
- Financial colonization
- History of the political economy of State-building (MENA region)
- Arab and Islamic political and economic thought
- Media and conflict
Select peer-reviewed publications
Books
Hicham Safieddine, Banking on the State: The Financial Foundations of Lebanon (Stanford University Press, 2019).
Hicham Safieddine and Jens Hanssen, ed. & trans.The Clarion of Syria: A Patriot’s Call to Overcome the Civil War of 1860 (University of California Press, 2019).
Hicham Safieddine, ed. Angela Giordani, trans. Mahdi Amel, Arab Marxism and National Liberation: Selected Writings (Brill, forthcoming 2020).
Peer-reviewed journal articles
‘Mahdi Amel: On Colonialism, Sectarianism, and Hegemony,’ Middle East Critique (Under review, 2020).
‘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), co-authored with Jens Hanssen.
Journal and magazine articles
‘Al-Lubi al-Masrifi fi Lubnan: Al-Judhur al-Muassasatiyya li Sultat al-Mal,’ [The Banking Lobby in Lebanon: The Institutional Roots of Money Power, Al-Adab, 15/10/2015.
‘Unionizing in Lebanon: The Struggle is Elsewhere,’ Jadaliyya, Oct 11, 2012.
‘Tomorrow’s Tunisia and Egypt: Reform or Revolution?’ Monthly Review, Feb, 01, 2011.
‘Fallahu Suriyya: Sunna‘ li al-Tarikh Am Adat lahu?’ [Syria’s Peasants: Agents or Instruments of History?], Al-Adab, Issue 6/7/8, 2010.
Book chapters
Hicham Safieddine and Jens Hanssen, 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), 13-22.
Book reviews
A review of Kamal Dib’s Intra Wa Hitan al-Mal, The Arab Studies Journal.
Yusif Beidas’s Imbraturiyyat Intra wa Hitan al Mal Fi Lubnan (Yusif Beidas: The Intra Empire and Money Sharks in Lebanon), The Arab Studies Journal (vol. XXV, no.1, Spring 2017).
Teaching
MA
- 7AAJM204 A History of the Arab Israeli Conflict
- 7AAJM214 State-builders, Revolutionaries, and Reactionaries: Makers of the Modern Middle East
BA
6SSJM200 International Relations of the Middle East