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| Aomar Boum | |
|---|---|
| Name | Aomar Boum |
| Birth date | 1972 |
| Birth place | Casablanca, Morocco |
| Occupation | Historian, Professor, Writer |
| Alma mater | University of California, Los Angeles; University of Chicago |
| Notable works | "Memories of Absence"; "Illicit Wealth, Proscribed Histories" |
Aomar Boum is a Moroccan-American historian and cultural anthropologist specializing in modern Morocco, North Africa, and Jewish diasporas, with research spanning migration, memory, and transnational networks. He holds academic appointments and has authored works that intersect studies on colonialism, postcolonialism, and Sephardi and Mizrahi histories, frequently engaging with archival materials, oral histories, and material culture.
Born in Casablanca in 1972, Boum grew up amid Morocco's multilingual milieu influenced by French protectorate in Morocco, Spanish Sahara, and regional ties to Algeria, Mauritania, and Andalusia. He pursued higher education in the United States, earning degrees that connect him to intellectual traditions at University of California, Los Angeles and University of Chicago, engaging with scholars linked to studies of Maghreb, Middle East, and Mediterranean history. Boum's personal background and transnational experience inform his work on migration, diaspora, and memory across Israel, France, Spain, and the United Kingdom.
Boum has held faculty positions at institutions including University of California, Los Angeles, where he contributed to programs in History, Anthropology, and Middle Eastern Studies, and at the University of Mississippi and other research centers associated with African Studies, Jewish Studies, and Comparative Literature. His teaching portfolio has included courses on modern Morocco, Jewish-Muslim relations, colonial archives, and oral history methodologies, often incorporating case studies from Tangier, Fez, Rabat, and the Mediterranean Sea littoral. He has participated in collaborative projects with archives such as the National Archives of Morocco, museums like the Museum of Jewish Heritage, and research initiatives linked to the Smithsonian Institution and various university presses.
Boum's scholarship addresses intersections among migration studies, memory studies, and material culture in the context of North African Jewish communities, particularly focusing on migration to Israel and France in the twentieth century. He has published articles and chapters in journals connected to Middle Eastern Studies Association, Journal of North African Studies, and edited volumes from university presses like Stanford University Press and Princeton University Press. His research draws on archival collections in Paris, Jerusalem, and Casablanca, as well as oral history projects with communities from Essaouira, Tetouan, and Marrakesh, engaging with scholars who study Sephardic memory, Mizrahi activism, and postcolonial identity.
Among Boum's major works is a study of memory and absence that examines how Moroccan Jews and Muslim neighbors recall migration and cohabitation under shifting sovereignties such as the French Protectorate and post-independence administrations. His books explore themes related to heritage preservation, contested histories in museums and archives, and the politics of restitution tied to artifacts and archives dispersed to institutions in Paris, London, and New York City. He analyzes case studies that connect to events like the Algerian War, the establishment of Israel, and Moroccan urban transformations in Casablanca and Fez, engaging with theoretical frameworks from thinkers associated with postcolonial studies, memory studies, and diaspora studies.
Boum has received fellowships and awards from organizations such as national and international foundations that support humanities research, including grants associated with the American Council of Learned Societies, the Ford Foundation, and university-based research awards. His work has been acknowledged by scholarly associations in Middle Eastern Studies, Jewish Studies, and Anthropology for contributions to understanding North African diasporas and memory politics, and he has been invited to lecture at institutions including Harvard University, Columbia University, and Oxford University.
Boum engages publicly through lectures, exhibitions, and media collaborations, contributing to documentaries, museum curation projects, and op-eds in outlets that cover Middle East and North Africa affairs. He has collaborated with cultural institutions in Casablanca, Marrakesh, Paris, and Jerusalem on exhibitions addressing Jewish-Muslim coexistence, restitution of cultural property, and community memory, and has appeared on panels hosted by organizations such as the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and regional cultural festivals. He also advises archival digitization projects and participates in interdisciplinary networks linking scholars from Europe, North America, and the Maghreb.
Category:Historians of Morocco Category:Moroccan emigrants to the United States