Michael Akladios

I am a historian of migration and transnationalism with a particular focus on 20th century Egypt, Canada, and the United States. My research critically reflects on the multipolar diasporas of Coptic Orthodox Christians. Current and future scholarship examines multiple, intersecting histories: the history of modern Egypt; Coptic Christian, Egyptian, and Arab immigrants in North America; and the Coptic Orthodox Church’s internal dynamics and relations to other Christian entities. I contribute to a sparse literature on the study of Cold War relations between the United States, Canada, and Egypt and broad issues in global Orthodoxy and Middle East politics, such as the Arab-Israeli conflict.

A public-facing historian, I am the founder and executive director of Egypt Migrations (est. 2016). I lead a team of committed experts to document and disseminate knowledge about the experiences of migrants from Egypt globally. The organization has garnered international recognition and stewards the first, and only, Egyptian immigrant archival collection, housed at the Clara Thomas Archives and Special Collections at York University.

Publications

“Critical Events and the Formation of a Coptic Diaspora in North America, from Al-Khanka to AlZāwiya Al-Hamrā,” in Dalia Abdelhady and Ramy Aly eds., The Routledge Handbook on Middle Eastern Diasporas (Routledge, 2022): 52-65;
“Competing Notions of Integration in Canada’s First Coptic Orthodox Parishes, 1971 – 1985,” Journal of the Canadian Society for Coptic Studies 13 (Winter 2021): 79-91;
“Heteroglossia: Interpretation and the Experiences of Coptic Immigrants from Egypt in North America, 1955 – 1975,” Histoire sociale / Social History 53.109 (Fall 2020): 627-650;
“Navigating Sacred Spaces: Coptic Immigrants in 1960s Toronto,” Left History 21.1 (2018): 109-122.

Awards

Global South Project Partnership Grant, Orfalea Center for Global and International Studies (2021 - 2022);
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Doctoral Award (2019 - 2020) Avie Bennett Dissertation Scholarship in Canadian History (2018 - 2019);
Ontario Graduate Scholarship (2016 - 2018)