James Alexander Samuel Sunderland

I studied for both my BA and MA in Near and Middle Eastern Studies at SOAS, University of London, with a specific focus on Hebrew and the history of the Yishuv (the pre-state Jewish community in Israel/Palestine). My doctoral research at Merton College, funded by the Open-Oxford-Cambridge AHRC DTP and the Clarendon Fund, focuses on British Mandate Palestine and the impact of the Jewish Insurgency on the British decision to abandon their commitments and withdraw from the country. My thesis will seek to counter the view put forward by much of the scholarship on this topic, that the Jewish Insurgency was largely ineffective in changing British policy towards Palestine. This has wider implications for understanding of insurgencies and counter-insurgency methods as well as the end of the British Empire in the second half of the twentieth century. My broader academic interests include: Late Ottoman history, the history and politics of Israel-Palestine (especially the discourse around the topic), British-Israel relations, post-war British foreign policy and Hebrew literature.