Ziad Abu-Rish

Ziad Abu-Rish is Associate Professor of Human Rights and Middle Eastern Studies at Bard College, where he also directs the MA Program in Human Rights and the Arts. He earned his PhD in History from the University of California, Los Angeles. Abu-Rish's research centers around state formation, economic development, and popular mobilizations, particularly in Lebanon and Jordan. He serves as co-editor of Arab Studies Journal and Jadaliyya e-zine, and co-director of the Lebanese Dissertation Summer Institute. He is the author of The State of Lebanon: Popular Politics and Institution Building in the Wake of Independence (Stanford University Press, 2026) as well as co-editor of The Dawn of the Arab Uprisings: End of an Old Order? (Pluto Press, 2012), Critical Voices: A Collection of Interviews from and on the Middle East (Tadween Publishing, 2015), and What Is Political Economy? (Tadween Publishing, 2016). Abu-Rish has also authored articles appearing in Middle East Report and Review of Middle East Studies and chapters in edited volumes on the political economy of the Middle East, the Arab uprisings, and teaching Middle East history.