Rami Zeedan

Prof. Zeedan is a political scientist and historian of modern Israel. He holds a PhD (2013) in Israel Studies from the University of Haifa, where he completed a dissertation on “The Financial Crisis in Arab Local Authorities in Israel from 1970-2007: Local and National Factors” (in Hebrew, 2012). He is the author of several academic articles and two books: the Arab-Palestinian Society in the Israeli Political System: Integration Versus Segregation in the Twenty-First Century. (Lexington Books, 2019) and Battalion of Arab- the History of the Minorities’ Unit in the IDF from 1948 to 1956 (Modan, 2015, Hebrew). Before joining the University of Kansas, Prof. Zeedan held visiting positions and fellowships at New York University, University of California, Berkeley, Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient (ZMO), Germany, the Open University of Israel, and Kinneret College. Dr. Rami Zeedan joined the University of Kansas in 2018 as Assistant Professor. His research focuses on the Arab-Palestinian society in Israel in the context of an ethnic minority in a nation-state while examining Arab politics at the national level and integration in the Israeli polity, Arab local governments and local leadership, public opinion, election predictions, and the history of the integration of Arabs in the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). His current research project aims to discover the role of the IDF minorities’ unit in Israel’s wars, mainly the War of 1967 and the War of 1973, and how it helped shape the process of integration of the Druze in Israel’s society. Prof. Zeedan is the founding editor of the Druze Studies Journal (DSJ) and leads the project of the Druze Studies. He is the co-recipient of the Christopher Haufler KU Core Innovation Award in 2023.