ABOUT
Dr. Khalid Mustafa Medani is Associate Professor of Political Science and Islamic Studies and Chair of the African Studies Program, and he has also taught at Oberlin College and Stanford University. Dr. Medani received a B.A. in Development Studies from Brown University, an M.A. in Development Studies from the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies at Georgetown University, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley. His research focuses on the political economy of Islamic and Ethnic Politics in Africa and the Middle East with a special focus on Sudan, Egypt, and Somalia. Dr. Medani is the author of Black Markets and Militants: Informal Networks in the Middle East and Africa (Cambridge University Press, 2021). He is presently working on a book manuscript on the causes and consequences of Sudan’s 2018 popular uprising and the prospects for Democracy. In addition, Dr. Medani has published on civil conflict with a special focus on the armed conflicts in Sudan and Somalia. His work has appeared in Political Science and Politics (PS), the Journal of Democracy, the Journal of North African Studies, Current History, Middle East Report, Review of African Political Economy, Arab Studies Quarterly, and the UCLA Journal of Islamic Law.
Dr. Medani has worked as a researcher at the Brookings Institution, at Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC), and with a variety of international organizations including the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), and the UN Office of the Coordinator of Humanitarian Affairs. He has also served as a senior consultant for a variety of governments on issues such as the roots of Islamic militancy, the Darfur crisis, youth politics in Sudan, and electoral reforms in Morocco including the governments of the United States, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and Norway Dr. Medani is a previous recipient of a Carnegie Scholar on Islam award from the Carnegie Corporation of New York and he was awarded a Woodrow Wilson Scholarship from the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars in 2020-2021
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
Revolutionary Sudan: From Autocracy to Democracy (current book project in progress, 2023).
Sudan’s Revolution: Understanding the New Dynamics of Mobilization in Hesham Sallam and Amr
Hamzawi, ed., Understand the Arab Uprisings, forthcoming, University of Michigan Press, 2022.
Black Markets and Militants: Informal Networks in the Middle East and Africa. Cambridge University
Press, 2021.
“Understanding Sudan’s Uprising: The Virtue of Learning from the Past.” Jadiliyya, March, 2019.
“Sudan in the Context of the Arab Spring,” in Paul Amar and Vijay Prashad eds. Dispatches from
the Arab Spring: Understanding the New Middle East. University of Minnesota Press, 2013.
“Between Grievances and State Violence: Sudan’s Youth Movement and Islamist Activism:
Beyond the Arab Spring,” Middle East Report, Winter, 2013.
“Understanding South Sudan’s Inter-Communal Conflict,” Middle East Report, Summer, 2013.
“Elections, Governance, and Secession in Sudan,” in David Gillies, ed., Elections in Dangerous
Places: Democracy and the Paradoxes of Peacebuilding (Montreal: McGill
Queen’s University Press), pp. 71-89, 2011.
“The Horn of Africa in the Shadow of the Cold War: Understanding the Partition of Sudan from
a Regional Perspective.” Journal of North African Studies, June 2011.
“Strife and Secession in Sudan.” Journal of Democracy, volume 22, number 3, July, pp. 135-149,
2011.
“Informal Networks, Economic Livelihoods and the Politics of Social Welfare in Somalia and
Egypt, Journal of Near East and Islamic Law, volume 10, number 99, May, pp. 99-137, 2011.
“Political Islam and Militancy: A Political Economy Approach.” Foresight, volume. 1, issue 2,
December, pp. 1-12., 2007,
“Black Monday: The Political and Economic Dimensions of Sudan’s Urban Riots.” Middle East
Report, Summer, available online at www.merip.org., 2005,
“State Building in Reverse: The Neo-Liberal ‘Reconstruction’ of Iraq.” Middle East Report, no.
232 Autumn, pp. 28-35, 2004.
“Financing Terrorism or Survival in Somalia? Informal Finance, State Collapse, and the US War
on Terrorism.” Middle East Report, volume 223, Summer, pp. 333-340, 2002.
“The Political Economy of an Islamist State: Sudan,” in Joe Stork and Joel Beinin, eds, Political
Islam: Essays from Middle East Report. Berkeley: University of California Press, pp. 166-167,
1996.
“Sudan’s Human and Political Crisis.” Current History, May, pp. 203-207, 1993.
“Funding Fundamentalism: Sudan.” Review of African Political Economy, number 53, November,
pp. 103-109, 1991.
“Factors Contributing to the Political Ascendancy of the Muslim Brethren in Sudan.” Arab Studies
Quarterly, Summer, pp, 1-16, 1990.
ACADEMIC HONORS AND FELLOWSHIPS
Woodrow Wilson Fellowship, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, 2020-2021.
Carnegie Scholar of Islam, Carnegie Corporation of New York, 2007-2009.
INVITED PUBLIC LECTURES
“Black Markets and Militants: Informal Networks in the Middle East and Africa,” Stanford University,
February 8, 2022.
“Prospects for Sudan’s Democratic Transition,” Brown University, Watson Institute for
International and Public Affairs, December 6, 2021.
“Understanding Sudan’s Turbulent Politics,” Princeton University, the Institute for the Transregional Studies of the Contemporary Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia, November 9, 2021.
“Black Markets and Militants,” University of California, Berkeley, Center for Middle East Studies,
October 26, 2021.
“The Arab Uprisings in Comparative Perspective: Lessons from Sudan’s Revolution.” Center for South
Asian and Middle East Studies and the Center of African Studies, University of Illinois, Urbana
Champagne, February 6, 2020.
“The Prospects and Challenges of Democratic Consolidation in Sudan,” Stanford University, October 12,
2019.
“The Role of Informal Networks in the Rise and Fall of Authoritarianism in Sudan,” Center for Middle
Eastern Studies, Brown University, October 10, 2019.
“Sudan’s Popular Intifada and the Prospects for Democracy: From Revolution to Resolution,” Center for
Contemporary Arab Studies (CCAS), Georgetown University, September 26, 2019.
“Protest, Popular Sovereignty, and Revolution in Sudan,” Concordia University, September 7, 2019.
“The New Politics of the Horn of Africa,” Center of African Studies, University of Toronto, October 22,
2018,
“Informal Networks and the War on Terrorism in the Horn of Africa, Destabilizing Factors and
Transnational Threats, Istanbul, Turkey, May 27-31, 2011.
“The Political Economy of Islamist Militant Recruitment,” Virginia Technical University, April 14, 2011.
“Sanctioning Secession in Sudan,” Invited Address, invited address at a conference: Censuring the Middle
East, Hagop Kevorkian Center, Near East Studies, New York University, February 11, 2011.
“Civil Conflict, Political Islam, and the Referendum in Sudan,” Invited Address, Institute of African
Studies, Carleton University, November 19, 2010.
“Debating Islamic Law and Politics,” Invited talk with Dr. Wael Hallaq, Shari’a in the World, McGill
University Law School, March 24, 2009.
Ph.D. THESIS SUPERVISOR
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“Localizing Global Jihad,” Christopher Anzalone, Doctoral Candidate, Institute of Islamic Studies,
Winter, 2018.
“The Political of Law and Islam in Sudan,” Jeffrey Sachs, Doctoral Candidate, Institute of Islamic
Studies, Fall, 2014.
“The Politics of Protest in Tunisia and Egypt,” Merouan Mekouar, Doctoral Candidate, Political
Science Department, Summer, 2013.
“The Islamic Movement in Somalia: A Historical evolution with the case study of the Islah
movement (1950 – 2000),” Abdurrahman Abdullahi, Doctor of Philosophy/Institute of Islamic
Studies, Winter, 2011.
“Islam in West Africa: Some Factors Contributing to the Political and Social Ascendancy of
Wahhabist Islam in Northern Ghana,” Mohammad Saani Ibrahim/Doctor of Philosophy/ Islamic
Studies, Fall, 2011.
“Counterinsurgency’s Impact on Transitions from Authoritarianism: The Case of South Africa,”
Daniel Douek, Doctor of Philosophy/ Political Science, thesis completed, Winter, 2011.
“Islamic and Islamist Revivalism in Syria: The Rise and Fall of Secularism in Ba’thist Syria,” Line
Khatib, Doctor of Philosophy/Institute of Islamic Studies, Fall, 2010.
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MA THESIS SUPERVISOR (MOST RECENT)
“The Battle of the Mosques: Islamist politics in Tunisia,” Michael Deramo, Institute of Islamic
Studies, 2021.
“The Politics of Clientelism and democratization in Iraq,” Sherwan Ali, MA Thesis, Institute of
Islamic Studies, 2021.
“Political Clientelism in Lebanon and Sudan,” Morgane Rousseu, MA thesis, Institute of Islamic
Studies, Winter, 2018.
“Understanding Sectarian Politics and Insurgency in Iraq,” Omar Aziz, MA thesis, Institute of
Islamic Studies, Winter, 2018,
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MEDIA
Contemporary Sudanese Politics, ‘Connections’ Broadcast, Arab Studies Institute, 2022.
Public Broadcast Station (PBS), TV appearance on the Sudanese Uprising (Online), 2019.
The Roots of Sudan’s Revolution, BBC World, 2019.
“Understanding the Popular Sentiment of Sudan’s Uprising.” Podcast, KPFA/Pacifica Radio, Berkeley
California, January 2019.
“South Sudan’s Significance.” The Agenda with Steve Paikan, TVO Show, December 2011.
“The Political Transition in Egypt and Protests in the Arab World.” CTV TV, Montreal, January 10 and
March 29, 2011
“Want to Fight Terrorism? Think Globally Act Locally.” Globe and Mail, August 4, 2008.
“What Drives Militant Islam?” Extended Interview, Headway Magazine, McGill University,
volume 3, number 1, Spring, pp. 13-14, 2008,
CONTACT
Phone 514-398-4400 Ext 089509
Email khalid.medani@mcgill.ca
Address 855 Sherbrooke St. W.
Montreal, Quebec, H3A 2T7