Asef Bayat is Professor of Sociology, and the Catherine and Bruce Bastian Professor of Global and Transnational Studies at the Department of Sociology, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Before joining Illinois, Bayat taught at the American University in Cairo for many years, and served as the director of the International Institute for the Study of Islam in the Modern World (ISIM) holding the Chair of Society and Culture of the Modern Middle East at Leiden University, The Netherlands.In the meantime, he had visiting positions at the Universality of California, Berkeley, Colombia University, Oxford, and Brown.  

My recent research has focused on the understanding of the Arab revolutions-- historically, comparatively, and sociologically. In particular I have explored the place of popular classes in these revolutions. My latest book has tried to narrate the story of these (notably the Tunisian and Egyptian) revolutions from the perspective of subaltern classes. These studies offer the possibility of articulating a new meaning of revolution.