Allan Cunningham

Professor Emeritus

Area of Study: Middle East

Biography

Dr. Allan Cunningham received his PhD from the University of London, after which he served as a Senior Research Fellow at Oxford University. Upon arriving at SFU in 1964, Dr. Cunningham helped to establish the History Department and served as its inaugural Chair. He later served two terms as Dean of Arts during the early years of the University.

A specialist in the Middle East and Arab-Israeli relations, Dr. Cunningham was a fellow of the Royal Geographic Society, the Royal Historical Society, and the Turkish Historical Society. In 1979, he was awarded a prestigious Guggenheim fellowship.

In addition to his career as a historian, Cunningham had a distinguished record as a spitfire pilot during World War II. He was also an accomplished painter and a well-known mountaineer. The Peak of the Brothers in the Andes is named after him and his brother, Frank Cunningham, who taught in SFU's geography department.

Allan Cunningham died in January 1988.

Biographical information drawn from the Allan B. Cunningham Fonds Finding Aid, SFU Archives.

Publications - Selected

• "The Sick Man and the British Physician," Middle Eastern Studies, Vol. 17, No. 2 (Apr., 1981): 147-173.
• "The Philhellenes, Canning and Greek Independence," Middle Eastern Studies, Vol. 14, No. 2 (May, 1978): 151-181.
• "The Oczakov Debate," Middle Eastern Studies, Vol. 1, No. 3 (Apr., 1965): 209-237.