Ziad is the Elliott E. Burdette Professor at the American University of Paris. He teaches history, politics, and international relations and writes on Lebanese, Syrian, and Arab affairs, as well as on regional political transitions and crises. After graduating in economics from the American University of Beirut, he obtained a master’s degree in Arabic literature, then a Ph.D. in political science from Sciences Po Paris. He has been involved since 1994 in research work and reform campaigns related to political processes, and legal and civil society causes in Lebanon and other Arab countries. For the last 20 years, he has been regularly publishing articles and papers in Arabic (in Now Lebanon, Al-Quds al-Arabi, Al-Hayat, Aljazeera Center, the Journal of Palestine Studies, Daraj and Megaphone) and in French (in L’Orient Littéraire, Mediapart, Le Monde, L’Express, Libération and AOC). He is a board member in Lebanese and French cultural institutes, a consultant for many international organizations, and a lecturer in international festivals and annual conferences. His books include Syrie, la révolution orpheline, published in Arabic, French, and—in an updated version—in German, and Dans la tête de Bachar Al-Assad (with Subhi Hadidi and Farouk Mardam-Bey) in French.
