Biography
Dr. Michael Akladios is a historian of Egyptian migration to North America whose work bridges multiple geographies through the lived experiences of immigrant communities. His scholarship sits at the intersection of Diaspora and Transnationalism Studies, Coptic and Global Orthodox Studies, and documenting the everyday through oral history.
He holds a Ph.D. in History from York University, where he also completed his Specialized Honours Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts. He has taught at the University of Toronto, York University, Sheridan College, and Philopateer Christian College, designing and delivering interdisciplinary courses across the humanities and social sciences.
His research has been presented at national and international conferences, and published in peer-reviewed journals, scholarly collections, and public-facing outlets. He is currently revising his first book, Ordinary Copts, and is under contract with Bloomsbury Publishing for Egyptian Americans: History, Culture, and Experiences.
A public historian, he is the Founder and Executive Director of Egypt Migrations, a public history and digital storytelling project that preserves and amplifies Egyptian immigrant narratives. An active member of York University’s Diaxporas: Migration Memory Research Collective, he is preparing podcasts and digital educational resources to promote innovative teaching and student and public engagement. He also serves as Vice President of the Coptic Museum of Canada and advises cultural and archival initiatives on heritage, memory, and identity in diasporic communities.
Publications
Publications in Progress
———. “‘We Brought the Middle East Here with Us’: Egyptians in Cold War Montreal and Toronto.” In Making Immigrants Insiders: New Directions in Canadian Migration History, edited by Roberto Perin and Abril Laberatori. Vancouver: UBC Press. (In publication)
———. Ordinary Copts: Ecumenism, Activism, and Belonging in North American Cities. Montreal: McGill–Queens University Press. (In revision)
———. Egyptian Americans: History, Culture, and Experiences. New York: Bloomsbury Academic/ABC–CLIO. (Commissioned)
Refereed Publications
Candace Lukasik and Michael Akladios, eds. “Special Issue: Toward Critical Coptic Studies.” Exchange: Journal of Contemporary Christianities in Context 54, no. 1 (2025).
Michael Akladios. “Critical Events and the Formation of a Coptic Diaspora in North America, from Al–Khanka to Al–Zāwiya Al–Hamrā.” In Routledge Handbook on Middle Eastern Diasporas, edited by Dalia Abdelhady and Ramy Aly, 52-65. London: Routledge, 2022.
———. “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, no. 109 (Fall 2020): 627–650.
———. “Navigating Sacred Spaces: Coptic Immigrants in 1960s Toronto.” Left History 21, no. 1 (2018): 109–122.
Book Reviews
———. Review of Beyond Accommodation: Everyday Narratives of Muslim Canadians, by Jennifer Selby et al. Canadian Ethnic Studies 51, no. 3 (2019): 165–166.
———. Review of A Place in the Sun: Haiti, Haitians, and the Remaking of Quebec, by Sean Mills. Canadian Ethnic Studies 49, no. 3 (2017): 153–154.
———. Review of Invisible Immigrants: The English in Canada since 1945, by Marilyn Barber and Murray Watson. Histoire sociale / Social History 50, no. 102 (2017): 450–451.
Non–Refereed Publications and Editorials
———. “Coptic Orthodox Christians.” World Religions and Spirituality Project. Last modified August 1, 2025, .
———. “The Akladios Brothers: Finding the Copts in Cosmopolitan Alexandria.” Rowayat, April 25, 2023.
———. “Egypt Migrations.” Oral History Journal 50, no. 1 (2022): 24–25.
Michael Akladios and Amy Fallas. “Research under Covid Lockdowns, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Online Resources.” Orfalea Center for Global and International Studies, July 16, 2021.
Michael Akladios and Miray Philips. “The Contested Politics of Coptic Diasporic Activism.” The Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy, June 7, 2021.
———. “Holy Smoke: Egypt’s Copts Discover the Ethiopian Zion Coptic Church.” Egypt Migrations, October 11, 2020.
Michael Akladios and Candace Lukasik. “Debating Christmas Day: Copts, Calendars and the Immigrants’ Church.” Public Orthodoxy, Feb 20, 2020.
———. “Stop Victim–Blaming Egypt’s Copts.” Mada Masr (English), November 5, 2018. / “توقفوا عن لوم الضحايا من أقباط مصر,” Mada Masr (Arabic), November 13, 2018.
Education
Ph.D., History, York University, Toronto, ON, 2014–2020
M.A., History, York University, Toronto, ON, 2013–2014
B.A. (Spec. Hons.), History, York University, Toronto, ON, 2006–2013
Teaching
Michael is a dedicated educator whose teaching blends academic rigour with creativity, emphasizing participatory and applied learning in Canadian cultural, migration, and labour history. At Mount Allison, his courses encourage students to cultivate curiosity, critical inquiry, and effective communication skills in the age of AI.
Courses 2025–26:
HIST 3441 Modern Canada (Fall)
HIST 3491 Migration in Canadian History (Fall)
HIST 2421 Canada after 1871 (Winter)
HIST 3811 Canadian Working Class and Labour History (Winter)
HIST 3411 New France (Winter)
Research
Dr. Akladios investigates how migration, religion, and transnationalism shape immigrant identities and collective memory, with a focus on Coptic and Egyptian communities in North America and the Middle East. His scholarship includes topics on Church-state relations in Egypt, immigrant integration and institutional life, and long-distance diasporic
activism. He explores themes such as the politics of being “Arab Canadian”, the nostalgia of immigrant associational life, collective memory as it is translated to new contexts, and the ways migrants navigate living in between and across spaces and places.
As Founder and Executive Director of Egypt Migrations, he leads archival, educational, and outreach projects that preserve immigrant voices through exhibitions, digital initiatives, and collaborative programming. He has organized and co-organized major conferences, including “Archiving Everyday: Home, City, and Migrant Routes” at the American University in Cairo (2023), and annual Egypt Migrations conferences at York University. He has also contributed to open-access resources such as Confronting Canadian Migration History (2019) and the Canadian Immigration History Syllabus (2018), and is currently editing the digital series Egypt in Global and Comparative Perspectives.
Together, these projects reflect a central agenda: to understand how immigrant communities negotiate belonging, faith, and identity across borders, and how their histories reshape both local and global narratives of diaspora.
Grants, awards & honours
· Humanities and Social Sciences (HUSS) Grant, American University in Cairo, 2023–2024
· Global South Project Grant, Orfalea Center for Global and International Studies, 2020–2022
· Doctoral Award, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), 2019–2020
· Avie Bennett Dissertation Scholarship in Canadian History, York University, 2018–2019