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Dr. Aomar Boum

Judith B. and Burton P. Resnick Postdoctoral Fellowship
"Post-Holocaust Politics in Arab Lands: The Moroccan Context"

Professional Background

Dr. Boum is currently an assistant professor in the School of Middle Eastern and North African Studies and Religious Studies program at the University of Arizona, Tucson. He received his Ph.D. in Socio-Cultural Anthropology from the University of Arizona, Tucson in 2006.

Dr. Boum is the co-author of the Historical Dictionary of Morocco (2006). He has a forthcoming book Memories of Absence: How Muslims Remember Jews in Morocco. Stanford: Stanford University Press. During his tenure at the USHMM, he conducted research and worked on his new book on the Monarchy, Jews and Post-Holocaust Politics in Morocco. Dr. Boum has written several articles and essays on Moroccan Jewry, including Moroccan Judaism for Sale: Jewish Culture in the Context of Palestinian-Israeli Conflict. AJS Perspectives;(2012); The ‘Jewish Question’ in Contemporary Moroccan Cinema. International Journal of Middle East Studies. (Co-authored with Oren Kosansky), (2012); The Performance of ‘Convivencia’: Communities of Tolerance and the Reification of Toleration. Religion Compass, (2012); Saharan Jewry: History, Memory and Imagined Identity. Journal of North African Studies 16(3):325-341, (2011); The Plastic Eye: The Politics of Jewish Representation in Moroccan Museums. Ethnos: Journal of Anthropology 75(1):49-77, (2010); From ‘Little Jerusalems’ to the Promised Land: Zionism, Moroccan Nationalism and Rural Jewish Emigration. Journal of North African Studies 15(1):51-69, (2010); and Schooling in the Bled: Jewish Education and the Alliance Israélite Universelle in Southern Rural Morocco, 1830-1962. Journal of Jewish Identities 3(1):1-24, (2010).

He has several forthcoming book chapters, including Le Local et le global dans l’écriture de l’histoire sociale: Mélanges dédiés à Larbi Mezzine. Coordination Mohammed Kenbib et Jillali Adnani. Essais et Etudes, n. 55. Rabat: Publications de la Faculté des Lettres et Sciences Humaines, Mohammed V, pp. 159-192; “Against Hegemonic Narratives: Memory and History in the Literature of Edmond Amran El Maleh”; and “Sacred Week”: Re-Experiencing Jewish-Muslim Co-existence in Urban Moroccan Space. In: Glenn Bowman, ed. Sharing the Sacra: The Politics and Pragmatics of Inter-communal Relations around Holy Places. UK: Berghahn Books, (2012).

Dr. Boum has given numerous presentations and talks on his work on Moroccan Jewries in particular and Moroccan politics and cultures in general. For more information see his personal website: http://boum.faculty.arizona.edu/

Fellowship Research

For his Judith B. and Burton P. Resnick Postdoctoral Fellowship, Dr. Boum researched “Post-Holocaust Politics in Arab Lands: The Moroccan Context.”

Dr. Boum was in residence at the Center from Janaury 1 to May 31, 2013.