Professional Affiliation
Chair, African Studies Program and Associate Professor, Political Science Department and the Islamic Studies Institute, McGill University
Expert Bio
Dr. Khalid Mustafa Medani is associate professor of political science and Islamic Studies and Chair of the African Studies Program at McGill University. He received a B.A. from Brown University, an M.A. from Georgetown University, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Medani has published widely on the on the roots of civil conflict and the political economy of Islamist activism in Sudan, informal finance in Somalia, the obstacles to state building in Iraq, and the role of informal networks in the rise of violent extremism. More recently, his research has focused on the role of youth activism and democratization and he is working on a book manuscript on the prospects and challenges for democracy in Sudan. in Dr. Medani is a previous recipient of a Carnegie Scholar on Islam award from the Carnegie Corporation of New York.
Wilson Center Project
From Revolution to Resolution? Sudan’s Popular Uprising and the Transition from Autocracy to Democracy
Project Summary
Dr. Khalid Medani’s research project, From Revolution to Resolution? Sudan’s Popular Uprising and the Transition from Autocracy to Democracy, examines the underlying causes and consequences of the 2019 popular uprising and the fall of autocracy in Sudan The central premise of Dr. Medani’s research is that the ongoing and tenuous transition from autocracy to civilian democracy in Sudan will be greatly influenced by three overarching factors that will drive political developments in the future: the level of cohesion and coordination of actors in civil society, the coercive capacity of the security apparatus of the state, and the evolving role of international, and particular regional actors, vis-à-vis the current interim coalition government composed of both military and civilian leaders. Dr. Medani’s research applies current scholarship in comparative politics to explain the lessons of Sudan’s popular uprising in ways that offer insight into the processes of democratization as democratic consolidation in Africa.
Major Publications
“Strife and Secession in Sudan.” Journal of Democracy, volume 22, number 3, July 2011, pp. 135-149.
“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, 2011 May, pp. 99-137.
“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.
