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| Lorenzo Kamel | |
|---|---|
| Name | Lorenzo Kamel |
| Birth date | 1980s |
| Birth place | Turin, Italy |
| Occupation | Historian, Professor, Author |
| Alma mater | University of Turin; University of Oxford |
| Known for | Middle Eastern history, Imperial history, Global history |
Lorenzo Kamel
Lorenzo Kamel is an Italian historian and professor known for scholarship on the modern and contemporary Middle East, Mediterranean Sea connections, and Imperialism. He has held academic posts across Europe and the Middle East and is the founder of research initiatives focused on transnational and entangled histories linking Europe, the Levant, and North Africa. His work intersects debates involving Ottoman Empire, British Empire, French Third Republic, and post‑World War I settlements such as the Treaty of Sèvres and the Treaty of Lausanne.
Kamel was born in Turin and educated in Italian and British institutions. He completed undergraduate studies at the University of Turin and pursued postgraduate research at the University of Oxford, engaging with archives in London, Istanbul, and Beirut. During his doctoral training he worked with collections at the British Library, the Bibliothèque nationale de France, and the Archivio di Stato di Torino, situating his work within scholarship on the late Ottoman Empire, the Young Turk Revolution, the Arab Revolt, and the interwar mandates such as Mandatory Palestine and the French Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon.
Kamel has held academic appointments and visiting fellowships across universities and research centers. He served on the faculty at the University of Turin and held visiting positions at institutions including the University of Oxford's Middle East Centre, the University of Cambridge, and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He founded and directed research platforms that brought together scholars from the European Union, the Arab League, and the Union for the Mediterranean. He has been associated with think tanks and institutes such as the Middle East Institute, the European University Institute, and the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies, contributing to collaborative projects on regional connectivity, maritime history in the Mediterranean Sea, and the geopolitics of the Eastern Mediterranean.
Kamel’s research centers on transnational history that connects the Ottoman Empire, British Empire, French Empire, and the emergent national states of the Levant and Maghreb. He examines imperial governance, migration flows across the Mediterranean Sea, resource competition involving the Suez Canal and offshore hydrocarbons, and the making of borders after the First World War. His analyses draw on archival evidence from the Foreign Office (United Kingdom), the Archives nationales (France), the Başbakanlık Osmanlı Arşivi, and private papers related to figures such as T. E. Lawrence, Gertrude Bell, Faisal I of Iraq, and Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. Kamel also engages with historiographical debates involving Albert Hourani, E. H. Carr, Eric Hobsbawm, and Benedict Anderson, situating regional histories within broader frameworks of nationalism and imperialism.
Kamel has authored and edited monographs, edited volumes, and articles in international journals. Major books address topics such as Iraq’s modern history, interwar diplomacy, and Mediterranean connectivity. He has published in journals and outlets alongside scholars from institutions such as the London School of Economics, Princeton University, Yale University, and the University of Chicago. Selected works include monographs and edited collections that engage with the Ottoman legacies in the Arab World, the geopolitics of oil and infrastructure in the Middle East, and comparative studies of decolonization in Algeria and Palestine. His editorial projects brought together contributors affiliated with the American University of Beirut, the University of Oxford, the Université Saint-Joseph (Beirut), and the University of Milan.
Kamel’s scholarship has earned grants and fellowships from research councils and foundations across Europe and the Middle East. He has been a grantee of bodies such as the European Commission, national research agencies in Italy, and cultural foundations linked to the Italian Ministry of Culture. He received fellowships enabling work at archives in Istanbul, Cairo, and Paris, and held visiting fellowships at centers including the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard University and the Fondazione Giorgio Cini in Venice. His projects have been supported by collaborative networks involving the Union for the Mediterranean and the Mediterranean Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Beyond academia, Kamel is active in public discourse on Middle East affairs, contributing analysis to international media and participating in panels hosted by organizations such as the United Nations agencies, the European Parliament, and regional forums in Beirut and Rome. He has appeared on broadcast outlets and written for newspapers and magazines produced by institutions like the Financial Times, The Guardian, Le Monde, Al Jazeera English, and Il Sole 24 Ore, discussing topics from Iraq’s state formation to Mediterranean migration and regional energy geopolitics. He has also lectured at cultural institutions including the Istituto Italiano di Cultura and the British Council.
Category:Italian historians Category:Historians of the Middle East