John T Sidel

John T. Sidel serves as the Sir Patrick Gillam Professor of International and Comparative Politics at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), where he is affiliated with both the Department of Government and the Department of International Relations. He has been Director of the Saw Swee Hock Southeast Asia Centre at LSE since August 2023. Sidel received his BA and MA in Political Science from Yale University in 1988 and his PhD in Government from Cornell University in 1995.

Sidel's research spans several interconnected areas of Southeast Asian politics, with particular expertise in Indonesia and the Philippines. His work examines local politics and bossism, the relationship between Islam and politics, comparative historical sociology of Southeast Asia, reform advocacy campaigns, and more recently, transport and infrastructure politics in the Philippines. He has published extensively on these topics, including the influential book Capital, Coercion, and Crime: Bossism in the Philippines (1999) and Riots, Pogroms, Jihad: Religious Violence in Indonesia (2006), as well as his most recent major work Republicanism, Communism, Islam: Cosmopolitan Origins of Revolution in Southeast Asia (2021).

Sidel teaches three postgraduate courses at LSE: Globalization and Democratization in Southeast Asia, Local Power in an Era of Globalization, Democratization, and Decentralization, and Islam in World Politics. His recent scholarly output demonstrates continued engagement with contemporary political developments in Southeast Asia, with particular attention to authoritarianism, democratization processes, and the political economy of infrastructure and transport. His publications span academic journals, book chapters, policy reports, and occasionally media commentary, reflecting his commitment to both scholarly rigor and public engagement.

Sidel has undertaken significant public engagement work, including expert advice for the Coalitions for Change program in the Philippines (sponsored by DFAT and The Asia Foundation), expert testimony in legal cases involving Southeast Asian countries, and reports for the UNHCR on Indonesia spanning 1998-2007. His approach combines deep area expertise with broader theoretical frameworks drawn from comparative politics and historical sociology.