Leila Farsakh researches the political economy of development, with specific focus on the Middle East region and the Arab/Israeli conflict. Her books include, Rethinking Statehood in Palestine: Self-Determination and Decolonization beyond Partition (University of California Press, 2021), Palestinian Labor Migration to Israel: Labour, Land and Occupation, (Routledge, 2005 (second edition in 2012) and The Arab and Jewish Questions: Geographies of Engagement in Palestine and Beyond (Columbia University Press, 2020, co-edited with Bashir Bashir). In 2008 she was the guest editor for the Electronic Journal of Middle Eastern Studies special volume entitled Commemorating the Naksa, Evoking the Nakba. She has also published on questions related to Palestinian labor flows, the Oslo Process, international migration and the one state solution in Israel/Palestine in a wide range of journals, including the Middle East Journal, the European Journal of Development Research, Journal of Palestine Studies and Le Monde Diplomatique.

Associate Professor Leila Farsakh has also worked with a number of international organizations, including the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris (1993-1996) and the Palestine Economic Policy Research Institute in Ramallah (1998-1999). Between 2003 and 2004, she completed a post-doctoral research fellowship at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard University. In 2001 she won the Peace and Justice Award from the Cambridge Peace Commission (Cambridge, MA).