Faculty

Profile

Benoit Challand is Associate Professor of Sociology at The New School for Social Research. He has previously taught at NYU and at the University of Bologna. Most recently, he was co-editor of The Struggle for Influence in the Middle East: The Arab Uprisings and Foreign Assistance and co-author, with Chiara Bottici, of Imagining Europe: Myth, Memory and Identity. He is completing a book manuscript on Violence and Representation in the Arab Uprisings. 

Degrees Held

PhD in Social and Political Science from the European University Institute, in Florence (2005)

MA in Near East Studies, School of Oriental and African Studies, London (2000)

MA in Contemporary History and Greek Philology, University of Fribourg (1999)

Professional Affiliation

Middle Eastern Studies Association (MESA)

American Sociological Association

Graduate Institute for International and Development Studies, Geneva

Recent Publications

2020    “The Political Economy of Local Governance in Yemen: Past and Present”, co-authored with Joshua Rogers, Contemporary Arab Affairs 13(4) forthcoming.

2020    “Current Legacies of Colonial Violence and Racialization in Tunisia,”, Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East 40(2), pp. 248-255.

2019:   “Europe After Eurocentrism ?” (with Chiara Bottici), Special issue on The Future of Europe, Agon Hamza & Frank Ruda (eds), Crisis & Critique 7(1), pp. 56-87.

2018:   “Research in and on the Palestinian Occupied Territories”, in Janine A. Clark and Francesco Cavatorta (eds.), Political Science Research in the Middle East and North Africa: Methodological and Ethical Challenges, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 62-72.

2017:   “Debates on civil society in the Mediterranean”, in Federico Volpi and Richard Gillepsie, (eds.), Routledge Handbook of Mediterranean Politics, Vol. VI: Non-state actors and social movements, London: Routledge, pp. 295-308.

2017:   “Citizenship and Violence in the Arab worlds. A Historical Sketch”, in Bryan S. Turner and Jürgen Mackert (eds.), The Transformation of Citizenship, Vol. 3: Struggle, Resistance and Violence, London: Routledge, pp. 93-112.

2017:   The Struggle for Influence in the Middle East: The Arab Uprisings and Foreign Assistance, co-edited with Federica Bicchi, and Steven Heydemann, London: Routledge.

2017:   “Debates on civil society in the Mediterranean”, book chapter in Federico Volpi and Richard Gillepsie, (eds.), Routledge Handbook of Mediterranean Politics, Vol. VI: Non-state actors and social movements, London: Routledge, pp. 295-308.

2017:   “Citizenship and Violence in the Arab Worlds: A Historical Sketch”, book chapter in Bryan S. Turner and Jürgen Mackert (eds.), The Transformation of Citizenship, Vol. 3: Struggle, Resistance and Violence, London: Routledge, pp. 93-112. 

2013:   Guest editor of a special issue of Constellations. An International Journal of Critical and Democratic Theory 20(1), “Social Theory and the Arab Uprisings”.

2013:   Imagining Europe: Myth, Memory and Identity, co-authored with Chiara Bottici, New York: Cambridge University Press.

2012:   Le développement, une affaire d’ONG ? Associations, Etats et bailleurs dans le monde arabe, co-edited with Caroline Abu-Sada, Paris: Karthala-IREMAM.

2011:   The Politics of Imagination, edited with Chiara Bottici, London: Routledge.

2010:   The Myth of the Clash of Civilizations, co-author Chiara Bottici, London: Routledge (paperback available since June 2012).

2009:   Palestinian Civil Society: Foreign Donors and the Power to Promote and Exclude, London: Routledge.

2000:   La Ligue Marxiste Révolutionnaire en Suisse Romande (1969-1980), Fribourg: Presses de l’ Université de Fribourg.

Research Interests

Political sociology; global critical theory; Arab politics; civil society mobilization; foreign aid; Western European Marxism.

Awards And Honors

Mellon Periclean Faculty Leadership Grant, 2020-2021 

Marie Curie Fellow, Intra-European Fellowship, 2006-2008