Dr. Aomar Boum
Aomar Boum is a sociocultural
anthropologist. His research explores
how Moroccans (Muslim and Jewish)
remember, picture, and construct
Jewishness and Moroccan Judaism.
Boum received a Ph.D. in anthropology
from the University of Arizona in 2006,
an M.A. in applied humanities from
Al-Akhawayn University, Ifrane (Morocco)
in 1997, and a B.A. in English language and
literature from Cadi Ayyad University,
Marrakesh (Morocco) in 1993. His PhD
dissertation was titled Muslims Remember
Jews in Southern Morocco: Social Memories,
Dialogic Narratives, and the Collective
Imagination of Jewishness. Before joining
the University of Arizona, Boum taught at
Portland State University (2006-2008) as an
assistant professor of International Studies
and Islamic Studies.
Professor Boum has published a number of academic articles on ethnic folkdances and nationalism, the theme of toleration and Judeo-Muslim symbiosis in post-independence Morocco, traditional Islamic and modern education, as well as the history and historiography of rural Moroccan Jewry. He coauthored with Dr. Thomas Park the Historical Dictionary of Morocco (Scarecrow Press, 2006), and has written a number of entries on the Jews of southern Morocco in the Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World (Brill, forthcoming).
He is currently working on a manuscript Moroccan Memories: The Transformation of Muslim Attitudes toward a Jewish Minority as well as a number of articles on the migration of Saharan Jewry toward Israel in 1962, traditional and French modern education of rural Jewries, the representation of Jews in Moroccan museums, Moroccan Jews in national movies, and the national debate regarding the status of Jews within Morocco in national newspapers.