Rami Zeedan

Rami Zeedan
  • Director of Undergraduate Studies for Jewish Studies
  • Assistant Professor

Contact Info

785-864-5895
Wescoe Hall, Room 4027

Biography —

History of modern Israel, Israeli politics, Middle-Eastern politics, ethnic politics, urban affairs and local governments, public opinion.

Dr. Rami Zeedan joined the University of Kansas in 2018 as Assistant Professor at the Jewish Studies Program. 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). His first book focuses on the Israeli policies implemented towards the Arabs in Israel that were recruited to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) during the first decade of the country’s history: Battalion of Arabs: The History of the Minorities Unit in the IDF from 1948 to 1956 (2015).

In 2013-2014 Prof. Zeedan taught at the Open University of Israel. In 2014-2016 he held a two-year fellowship from the Council for Higher Education in Israel, during which he was the Taub-Schusterman postdoctoral research fellow at New York University (2014-2015), and a Fritz Thyssen postdoctoral research fellow with the Zentrum Moderner Orient in Berlin, Germany (2015-2016). In 2016-2017 he taught at the Open University of Israel, at Kinneret College, and at the NYU campus in Tel-Aviv. In 2017-2018 Prof. Zeedan was a Visiting Assistant Professor in the department of Political Science at University of California, Berkeley, with financial support from the Israel Institute.

Education —

Ph.D. in Israel Studies, University of Haifa, in cooperation with the School of Political Science, 2013, Israel
M.A. in (Cum Laude) in Israel Studies, University of Haifa, 2006, Israel
B.A. in Statistics and Israel Studies, University of Haifa, 2002, Israel

Research —

  • History of modern Israel
  • Israeli politics
  • Middle-Eastern politics
  • Ethnic politics
  • Urban affairs
  • Local governments
  • Public opinion

Teaching —

  • Politics and Government in Israel
  • The Palestinian-Israeli Conflict
  • The Arab-Palestinian Society in Israel
  • Politics of the Middle East (Internarial relations & comparative politics)
  • Zionism and the Establishment of Israel
  • The Historian's Research Tools
  • Research Methods in Political Sciences
  • Statistics, Surveys, and polling methods

Selected Publications —

Books

Zeedan, R. (2019). The Arab-Palestinian Society in the Israeli Political System in the- Integration versus Segregation in the Twenty-First Century. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books. ISBN 978-1-4985-5314-8. https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781498553148/Arab-Palestinian-Society-in-the-Israeli-Political-System-Integration-vs-Segregation-in-the-Twenty-First-Century  

Zeedan, R. (2015). Battalion of Arab- The History of the Minorities' Unit in the IDF from 1948 to 1956. Ben Shemen, Israel: Modan Publishing, in cooperation with Maarachot. 235 pages. (Hebrew)

Articles in Peer-Reviewed Journals

Zeedan, R. (2019). The 2016 US Presidential Elections: What Went Wrong in Pre-Election Polls? Demographics Help to Explain. J, 2, 84-101. DOI: 10.3390/j2010007

Zeedan, R. (2019). The Role of Military Service in the Integration/Segregation of Muslims, Christians, and Druze within Israel." Societies 9(1): 1.DOI:10.3390/soc9010001

Zeedan, R. (2018). Predicting the Vote in Kinship-Based Municipal Elections- the case of Arab localities in Israel. Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, 38(1), pp. 87-102. DOI: 10.1080/13602004.2018.1432149

Zeedan, R. (2017). Bigger, but not always Better: Size and Local Democracy in Israeli Amalgamated Local Governments. Journal of Urban Affairs, 39 (5), pp. 711-728.  DOI: 10.1080/07352166.2016.1262701

Zeedan, R., Vigoda-Gadot, E., & Ben-Artzi Y. (2017). "Causes of (and Solutions for?) Financial Crises in Local Governments: Insights from Local Arab Authorities in Israel", Administration & Society, 49 (7), pp. 1065-1083. (Advance online publication 21.11.2014). DOI:10.1177/0095399714556501

Zeedan, R. (2013). "Israel’s 2003 Plan for Unification of Local Authorities". Israel Affairs. 19:1: 170-190. DOI:10.1080/13537121.2013.748293

Invited Entries in Encyclopedias

Zeedan, R. (forthcoming) “The Druze Community in Israel.” In Oxford Bibliographies in Jewish Studies. Ed. Naomi Seidman. New York: Oxford University Press.