Aomar Boum, professor at UCLA and member of the Academy of the Kingdom of Morocco, is a distinguished ambassador for Al Akhawayn University. This historian and anthropologist is a recognized expert on religious and ethnic minorities in the Maghreb and the Middle East, with numerous publications to his name.
Historian and anthropologist Aomar Boum is a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and a member of the Academy of the Kingdom of Morocco. With this brilliant intellectual, Al Akhawayn University can proudly count on a remarkable ambassador. Originally from Lamhamid, near Foum Zguid in the province of Tata, the young Aomar Boum studied at Al Akhawayn from 1995 to 1997, after earning a bachelor’s degree in English literature from Cadi Ayyad University in Marrakech in 1993.
Four years later, he completed a PhD in anthropology at the University of Arizona, which went on to offer him a teaching position in the Department of Near Eastern and North African Studies.
Today, Aomar Boum holds the Maurice Amado Chair in Sephardic Studies within the departments of Anthropology, History, and Near Eastern Languages and Cultures at UCLA.
A prolific author, he is the co-founder and co-editor of the Tamazgha Studies Journal as well as the series Morocco and Its Mediterranean Space: Texts and Translations. He also co-edits the academic journal Souffles Monde, a tribute to the iconic magazine Souffles, the literary and artistic publication launched in 1966 by a group of committed poets, including Abdellatif Laâbi.
A specialist in ethnic and religious minorities in the Maghreb
He is also the driving force behind the Amazigh Studies Initiative at UCLA and co-directs the Moroccan Jewish Studies Initiative there. His research focuses on the place of religious and ethnic minorities—such as Jews, Baháʼís, Shiites, and Christians—in post-independence nation-states across the Middle East and North Africa.
These are subjects for which he is regularly invited to speak at conferences and symposia around the world. His deep knowledge and insightful analyses on the challenges facing ethnic and religious minorities in the Maghreb and the Middle East are especially well regarded.
Professor Boum is also the author of numerous publications and scholarly articles. Notable among them are: Memories of Absence: How Muslims Remember Jews in Morocco; Historical Dictionary of Morocco (with Thomas K. Park); The Holocaust and North Africa (with Sarah Abrevaya Stein); Wartime North Africa: A Documentary History, 1934–1950 (also with Sarah Abrevaya Stein); The Undesirables: A Holocaust Journey through North Africa (with Nadjib Berber); and The Last Rekkas of Morocco, co-authored with Majdouline Boum-Mendoza.
To learn more:
Project overview of Who’s Who AUI
Written in French by Jankari Consulting, edited in English by Nielson English
