David Mednicoff

Department Chair and Associate Professor of Middle Eastern Studies and Public Policy University of Massachusetts Amherst

  • Amherst MA

David Mednicoff is an expert in law, politics and policy in the Middle East and other parts of the world.

Contact

University of Massachusetts Amherst

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Expertise

Middle Eastern, Comparative, and International Law and Politics
U.S. Foreign Policy
Human Rights
Refugee Politics

Biography

David Mednicoff's research deals with broad connections between legal and political ideas and institutions at the national and transnational levels, particularly as these relate to current issues in the Middle East. His articles and book chapters analyze the rule of law, human rights issues, Western legal aid, US policy, migrant worker law and policy, political liberalization and constitutionalism in the Middle East, especially Morocco, Qatar, Tunisia and the UAE. He is currently completing a book manuscript on the meanings and politics of the rule of law in five Arab societies.

Social Media

Video

Education

Harvard University

Ph.D.

Political Science and Government

Harvard University

J.D.

International Law and Legal Studies

Harvard University

A.M.

Political Science

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Select Recent Media Coverage

Economists Warning over Trump's Federal Grant Freeze: 'Catastrophic Shock'

Newsweek  online

2025-01-28

David Mednicoff says a federal grant freeze will hurt universities and research institutes and result in job losses and economic setbacks.

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‘Very worrying': Iran launches missiles at Israel, uncertainty over how conflict will unfold

NBC News  tv

2024-10-01

David Mednicoff comments on the latest escalation of tensions in the Middle East. “It’s a question of whether everyone who wants to contain this conflict can prevail upon [Israeli] Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu and others in the region to keep it from getting much worse than it already is, and it’s already quite bad,” he says.

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Israel’s highest court protects its power to curb government extremism − 3 essential reads

The Conversation  online

2024-01-02

UMass Amherst's David Mednicoff is one of three experts commenting on efforts by Israel’s highest court to protect its power to curb government extremism.

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Select Publications

Defending space for free discussion, empathy and tolerance on campus is a challenge during Israel-Hamas war

The Conversation

David Mednicoff

2023-11-03

At the flagship campus of the University of Massachusetts Amherst, scholar David Mednicoff chairs the Department of Judaic and Near Eastern Studies. He spoke with The Conversation’s senior politics and democracy editor, Naomi Schalit, about how he and his colleagues and university leadership have tried to deal – as an educational institution and a community – with a highly charged situation on campus in which there is pain, anger and anguish on both sides.

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As contentious judicial ‘reform’ becomes law in Israel, Netanyahu cements his political legacy

The Conversation

2023

Israel’s parliament passed a law on July 24, 2023, that limits the Supreme Court’s ability to rein in government actions, part of a broader proposal by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to strengthen the power of the country’s executive branch.

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The World Cup puts the spotlight on Qatar, but also brings attention to its human rights record and politics – 4 things to know

The Conversation

2022

With the start of the World Cup on Nov. 20, 2022, soccer teams from 32 countries and tens of thousands of fans have converged on Qatar, a tiny Arab country on a peninsula in the Persian Gulf. But search “Qatar 2022” online, and the first nonsport results are about the country’s human rights issues.

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