Joshua Landis is Sandra Mackey Chair and Director of the Center for Middle East Studies and the Farzaneh Family Center for Iranian and Persian Gulf Studies at the University of Oklahoma in the Boren College of International Studies.

He writes and manages “SyriaComment.com,” a daily newsletter on Syrian politics that attracts some 50,000 page-reads a month.

Dr. Landis publishes frequently in policy journals such as Foreign Affairs, Middle East Policy and Foreign Policy. His book: Syria at Independence, Nationalism, Leadership, and Failure of Republicanism will be published by the Arab Center for research and Policy studies this coming year. He is a frequent analyst on TV, radio, and in print and is a regular on NPR and the BBC.

He has received three Fulbright Grants, a SSRC Grant and other support for his research and won numerous prizes for his teaching. He is past President of the Syrian Studies Association.

He has lived 15 years in the Middle East and 4 in Syria. He spent most summers in Syria before the uprising on 2011.

He was educated at Swarthmore (BA), Harvard (MA), and Princeton (PhD).

He is married to Manar Kashour and has two sons, Jonah and Kendall.