Lebanon is often described as a country of sects. But it is also a country of banks. What would the history of Lebanon look like when banks, rather than sects, are the primary category of analysis? This is what Banking on the State seeks to answer and in doing so speaks to broader questions about nationhood, sovereignty, colonialism and economic development and ideology in Lebanon in relation to regional and global forces.

Please join the Khayrallah Center for Lebanese Diaspora Studies for a live webinar with Hicham Safieddine, the Canada research chair in the history of the modern Middle East and associate professor of history at the University of British Columbia.  Safieddine is also the author of Banking on the State. He is a scholar of political economy and 19th and 20th centuries intellectual history with an emphasis on the Middle East and North Africa.