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James H. Sunday
University of Pennsylvania
Occupation
Assistant Professor
Contact

Cairo/Baltimore
ABOUT
Dr. James H. Sunday is currently Associate Dean in the Faculty of Arts and Assistant Professor of Political Science at the Universities of Canada in Egypt, which is the Cairo branch campus for both Ryerson University (Toronto, ON) and the University of Prince Edward Island (Charlottetown, PEI). Sunday is working on a number of projects, including two book manuscripts. Specialising in an interdisciplinary reading of politics of the Middle East and North Africa, his teaching and research interests evolve around state-society relations throughout the region. Over his career, Sunday has taught courses in a number of subfields and has participated in conferences and lectured in his native US, Egypt, Canada, Germany, and the UK. Sunday has also provided analysis and commentary for a number of news agencies-- amongst them the Washington Post (US), Tahrir TV (Egypt), and Egyptian state television. Sunday began his academic career in the Department of Political Science (POLS) at the American University in Cairo (AUC) as a part-time lecturer in 2012, then served full-time 2013-2016 as Research Assistant Professor, and finally as Assistant Professor of Methods with emphasis in Comparative Politics 2016-2019. In that capacity, he was also Program Director overseeing the Joint MA Program in Comparative and Middle East Politics and Society (CMEPS) between AUC and the Institute of Political Science at the University of Tübingen. While at AUC, Sunday taught both undergraduate and graduate courses (found here) and frequently supervised MA theses both in Cairo and in Tübingen (see Advising). In addition to teaching, he also served in a number of administrative capacities (here)-- including on the POLS Graduate Committee, the AUC Graduate Advisory Council, and the Academic Integrity Committee representing the School of Humanities and Social Sciences (HUSS). Sunday then held a research-based position with Johns Hopkins University. In terms of training, Sunday took his BA in Politics and Medieval Studies from the University of Virginia, followed by an MA in Political Science and Graduate Diploma in Middle East Studies from AUC. He then earned his PhD in Politics from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London.
Discipline
Political Science
Sub Areas
Comparative
Ethnography
Middle East/Near East Studies
Urban Studies
Theory
Cultural Studies
Modern
Geographic Areas of Interest
Egypt
Maghreb
All Middle East
Specialties
State-Society Relations
Political Ethnography
Critical Theory
Languages
English (native)
Arabic (fluent)
German (elementary)
Spanish (elementary)
Education
PhD | 2015 | Politics | SOAS, University of London
MA | 2008 | Comparative Politics | American University in Cairo
BA | 2004 | Politics, Medieval Studies | University of Virginia
Abstracts
Making Space: Taking Part in the Everyday Politics of Cairo’s Popular Quarters Gendered Encounters: Subject Formation and the Security State in Egypt Masculine Productions in Greater Cairo: Reflections on the Performative, Protective, and Normative Subject