John Sidel

Professor John Sidel is the Sir Patrick Gillam Professor of International and Comparative Politics at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). Born in New York City, he received his BA (Summa Cum Laude) and MA at Yale University and his PhD from Cornell University. He taught at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) from 1994 to 2004 before taking up his current post at the LSE.

Professor Sidel is a specialist on the politics of Southeast Asia, with special research expertise and experience in Indonesia, the Philippines, and, to a lesser extent, Thailand and Vietnam. His research interests have included local politics, religious violence, revolutions, and reform advocacy campaigns. He has undertaken extensive research and written expert reports for the Asia Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the UK's Department for International Development, Oxfam, and the United Nations High Commission for Refugees.

Professor Sidel is the author of Capital, Coercion, and Crime: Bossism in the Philippines (Stanford University Press, 1999); (with Eva-Lotta Hedman) Philippine Politics and Society in the Twentieth Century: Colonial Legacies, Postcolonial Trajectories (Routledge, 2000); Riots, Pogroms, Jihad: Religious Violence in the Philippines (Cornell University Press, 2006); The Islamist Threat in Southeast Asia: A Reassessment (East-West Centre, 2007); (with Jaime Faustino) Thinking and Working Politically in Development: Coalitions for Change in the Philippines (The Asia Foundation, 2019); and Republicanism, Communism, Islam: Cosmopolitan Origins of Revolution in Southeast Asia (Cornell University Press, 2021). He is currently working on two book manuscripts, titled "The Rise and Fall of Islam in World Politics" and "Hubs of Power, Avenues of Profit: The Political Economy of Transport and Infrastructure Development in the Philippines."