My research and teaching is interdisciplinary in nature and integrate several theoretical and methodological approaches. By this I mean not only modern-rational approaches to the study of history, culture, economics and politics, but also epistemologies, which are produced historically and locally in the societies in question. I am interested in the concrete constellation of circumstances that favor or hinder change. Questions like oil, gas and political power; sects, tribes, classes and the state in the Middle East; historical and conjectural causes for the emergence, expansion and contraction of social, protest and labor movements in the Arab world; Form, history, structural ruptures and modes of internationalization of peripheral states; Western intervention, violence and influence in the Middle East. Since the outbreaks of the Arab Revolution in 2010/11 followed by violent counterrevolutions I critically engaged with questions of state and popular power, political economy of the revolutions, and the violent forms of their stalemate. The observations of current violent conflicts, civil-, proxy and wars of intervention, crisis and state failing made me revisit and rethink al-Muqaddimah (prolegomena), the magnum opus of the Arab historian of the 14th century Ibn-Khaldun that has had enduring influence on modernity. My intention in re-visiting and researching al-Muqaddimah is to work out his understanding of the political and the state and how his epistemological and methodological approach can help us design and develop alternative methods and concepts of analysis more suitable for political, social and cultural qualities of the Middle East. The objective is to discern a historical democratic-political culture in the Arab world that appeals to the concrete needs of the people in the region and do away with an imported model of one-fits-all neoliberal democracy with its futile debates over the transition to that dysfunctional democracy, long story short: an epistemology of a different path to dignity.

Research Interests

• Vice-President Research, York University, Amount Awarded, $4000 - 2012-13
• Dean, Faculty of Liberal Arts, York University, Amount Awarded: $1000 - 2011-12
• York University, Amount Awarded: $15000 - 2007-08
• Doctoral Research Scholarship, Rosa Luxemburg Foundation. Amount Awarded: ca. 50 000 €. - 2000-2003

My research and teaching is interdisciplinary in nature and integrate several theoretical and methodological approaches. By this I mean not only modern-rational approaches to the study of history, culture, economics and politics, but also epistemologies, which are produced historically and locally in the societies in question. I am interested in the concrete constellation of circumstances that favor or hinder change. Questions like oil, gas and political power; sects, tribes, classes and the state in the Middle East; historical and conjectural causes for the emergence, expansion and contraction of social, protest and labor movements in the Arab world; Form, history, structural ruptures and modes of internationalization of peripheral states; Western intervention, violence and influence in the Middle East. Since the outbreaks of the Arab Revolution in 2010/11 followed by violent counterrevolutions I critically engaged with questions of state and popular power, political economy of the revolutions, and the violent forms of their stalemate. The observations of current violent conflicts, civil-, proxy and wars of intervention, crisis and state failing made me revisit and rethink al-Muqaddimah (prolegomena), the magnum opus of the Arab historian of the 14th century Ibn-Khaldun that has had enduring influence on modernity. My intention in re-visiting and researching al-Muqaddimah is to work out his understanding of the political and the state and how his epistemological and methodological approach can help us design and develop alternative methods and concepts of analysis more suitable for political, social and cultural qualities of the Middle East. The objective is to discern a historical democratic-political culture in the Arab world that appeals to the concrete needs of the people in the region and do away with an imported model of one-fits-all neoliberal democracy with its futile debates over the transition to that dysfunctional democracy, long story short: an epistemology of a different path to dignity.

Degrees

Professional Leadership

My contributions on Middle East Politics, economy and theory on issues of democracy, state and development were published in scholarly articles, books and book chapters. The arguments and analyses outlined in these works have not lost their relevance and to a large extent have been confirmed by the current developments. I have designed a new fourth year course on the subject to contribute to the expansion and internationalization of the curriculum.

Based on my attempt to develop the French theory of regulation and make it suitable for the analysis of development in (semi)peripheral societies, I have developed theoretical and analytical concepts with which I have analyzed development strategies in the Arab Middle East. This was an original contribution in theory and methods.

Another contribution was my re-thinking of the political-economic concept of "previous accumulation", and a theoretical extension of the materialist state theory to questions of peripheral states, especially around the issue of internationalization of the latter.

I have organized workshops for undergraduate and graduate students on issues concerning theory and methods in political science, political economy, and Middle East politics and involved them in activities such as organizing a workshop or a conference. I organized for my graduate students panels at national and international conferences and mentored them on presenting and publishing papers in conference proceedings.

I served as an expert and consultant on political and economic issues in the Middle East. I served as an author and a member on editorial boards and acted as an article reviewer and refere for refereed journals and a consultant for one of the Member of the European Parliament.

I organized workshops and gave lectures in schools, youth centres, and cultural centres with respect to issues of development, war, conflict, political education and the like, I gave public lectures in community centres and on campuses in Toronto on the subject of the Iraq war/occupation, as well as on the problematic of the global war on terror and the question of democracy in the Middle East. Since the beginning of the Arab Spring in December 2010, I have investigated this phenomenon in various forms a. o. publications in German and English, lectures and conference presentations in Canada, USA, Mexico, Germany, Spain, Austria etc.

Community Contributions

Jul13-June 30 2016: Graduate Program Director

July 2014-June 2016: Member of the Planing Committee

July 2015- present: Member of Recruitment Committee

September 2014- May 2015: Member of the CRC Hiring Committee

April 2015-present: Member of Graduate Council Governance Committee

January 2012 – June 2013: department’s representative to the faculty council

February-March 2012: Member of the PhD Admission Committee

September 2007 – April 2008: Member of the PHD Admission Committee

July 2009 - June 2010: Associate chair

September 2008 - April 2009: Member of the MA Admission Committee

January 2007 – June 2009: Member of the Workload Committee

Research Interests

Awards

• Vice-President Research, York University, Amount Awarded, $4000 - 2012-13
• Dean, Faculty of Liberal Arts, York University, Amount Awarded: $1000 - 2011-12
• York University, Amount Awarded: $15000 - 2007-08
• Doctoral Research Scholarship, Rosa Luxemburg Foundation. Amount Awarded: ca. 50 000 €. - 2000-2003