Drawing from his recent work, The State of Lebanon, Ziad Abu-Rish traces shifting patterns of alliances and conflict that shaped the material and representational production of the Lebanese nation-state, formed in 1943. His new social and institutional history of post-colonial Lebanon challenges common narratives of Lebanon as an absent, weak, or failed state. Instead, state institutional arrangements emerge as objects and subjects of political mobilization by politicians, bureaucrats, party activists, students, and workers. His research offers significant insights into politics, social life, and the state in Lebanon—grounded in the early post-independence period yet critical to how we understand Lebanon today.

Ziad Abu-Rish is a scholar of the modern Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region at Bard College. A historian by training, his research centers around state formation, economic development, and popular mobilizations, particularly in Lebanon and Jordan. Abu-Rish is the author of The State of Lebanon: Popular Politics and Institution Building in the Wake of Independence (Stanford University Press, 2026). He co-created (with artist Tania El Khoury) The Search for Power, a touring lecture performance and sound installation exploring the history of electricity in Beirut. Abu-Rish is also coeditor of The Dawn of the Arab Uprisings: End of an Old Order? (2012) and Critical Voices: A Collection of Interviews from and on the Middle East (2015). He has also authored several articles and chapters on the political economy of the Middle East, popular protests and movements in Lebanon and Jordan, and teaching Middle East history. Abu-Rish serves as coeditor of Jadaliyya e-zine and codirector of the Lebanese Dissertation Summer Institute. His media appearances include Al Jazeeera, BBC, and Democracy Now!.