Weston Bland

Headshot of Weston Bland

PhD Candidate

Weston's fields of academic speciality are the history of modern Egypt and Christianity in the modern Middle East, with a particular focus on twentieth-century Coptic history. He is particularly interested in Christian communal organization, the role that violence plays in constructing Middle Eastern Christians as historical subjects, and the resonance of missionary encounters in the modern Middle East.

His dissertation, "Communal Liberalism: Representative Institutions and the Transformation of the Coptic Sphere 1927-1961," explores the role that liberal political ideals played in Coptic debates and controversies regarding their communal institutions.

Education

MA, Middle Eastern Studies, The University of Texas at Austin

BA, Global Studies, Middle Eastern Studies, and Arabic, Missouri State University

Selected Publications

Journal Articles

Bland, Weston. “Press Memorials as a Source for Modern Coptic History: Reading through Mundane Death and the Politics of Respect.” Égypte Soudan Mondes Arabes, no. 24 (March 1, 2023): 193–207.

Bland, Weston. “‘A Friend of God and the Poor Wretched Blacks:’ Violence, Race, and Redemption in Missionary Narratives of Nile Valley Slavery.” Journal of World Christianity 12, no. 2 (August 10, 2022): 251–79, https://doi.org/10.5325/jworlchri.12.2.0251.

Bland, Weston. “Wild Libya: Narratives of Violence on Egypt’s Western Border.” The Journal of North African Studies 27, no. 3 (May 4, 2022): 575-607. https://doi.org/10.1080/13629387.2020.1842737.

Bland, Weston. “Copts, the State, and the 1949–1950 al-Majlis al-Millī Electoral Crisis: Articulating Community in a Time of Anxiety.” Islam and Christian–Muslim Relations 30, no. 3 (July 3, 2019): 303–22. https://doi.org/10.1080/09596410.2019.1619978.

Book Reviews

Bland, Weston. Review of The Political Lives of Saints, by Angie Heo. Religious Studies Review 47, no. 2 (2021): 235–235 https://doi.org/10.1111/rsr.15262

Archive Guides

Leidy, Joseph, and Weston Bland. 2021. “The Presbyterian Historical Society.” HAZINE. March 8, 2021. https://hazine.info/the-presbyterian-historical-society/.

Bland, Weston, and Amy Fallas. 2019. “Researching Modern Coptic History: A Guide to the Archives in the US and Egypt.” Coptic Canadian History Project (blog). August 25, 2019. https://thecchp.com/2019/08/25/a-guide-to-the-archives-in-the-us-and-egypt/.