Prof. dr. Ihab Saloul is Co-Founder and Research Director of the Amsterdam School for Heritage, Memory and Material Culture AHM at the University of Amsterdam, and Professor of Memory and Narrative at the International Center for Advanced Studies in the Humanities Umberto Eco at the University of Bologna. He leads the research domain 'Conflict' at the University of Amsterdam Research Priority Area, the Amsterdam Centre Cultural Heritage and Identity ACHI. Saloul held senior research positions and visiting professorships at various institutions such as the Institute of Advanced Studies (Istituto di Studi Avanzati (IAS), Istituto di Studi Superiori of the Alma Mater Studiorum, ISA at the University of Bologna, the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Studies NIAS, the Forum Transregionale Studien (EUME, Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin, WIKO ), Free University Berlin (Center for Middle Eastern & North African Politics), Marburg University (CNMS, The Research Network Re-Configurations), and Maastricht University.
Saloul expertise extend beyond the fields of heritage and memory studies, cultural studies and museum studies and encompass collective memory, conflict, trauma and identity politics, narrative theory and semiotics, post-colonialism, aesthetics and visual culture as well as migration, diaspora and exile in contemporary cultural thought in Europe and the Middle East. Saloul is an editor of two book series, ˜Heritage & Memory Studies' (Amsterdam University Press AUP) and the ˜Palgrave Studies in Cultural Heritage and Conflict (Palgrave Macmillan), Editor-in-Chief of the international peer-reviewed open access journal, International Journal of Heritage, Memory and Conflict (HMC /Amsterdam University Press AUP), and Editor-in-Chief of the new Palgrave Encyclopedia of Cultural Heritage and Conflict (PECHC). His recent books include Martyrdom: Canonisation, Contestation and Afterlives(Amsterdam University Press, 2020), Catastrophe and Exile in the Modern Palestinian Imagination: Telling Memories (Palgrave MacMillan, 2012 / Paper Edition 2018), Zoom In: Palestinian Refugees of 1948, Remembrances (Republic of Letters, 2011).
Saloul teaches in the BA Cultural Studies, MA Heritage and Memory Studies, MA Museum Studies, and the ReMA Heritage, Memory and Archaeology of which he was the program co-coordinator from (2016-2020). He also developed advanced seminars such as the Huizinga Institute ReMA & PhD seminar (Heritage & Memory Theory, 2015- ), the ReMA seminar (Violence and Postcolonial Remembrances, 2017-2019) at the Netherlands Research School for Literary Studies OSL, and the BA Honors course 'Competing Heritages and Memories' at University of Amsterdam. Saloul chairs the Curriculum Committee of the MA Heritage Studies (opleidingscommissie OC erfgoed: MA Heritage and Memory Studies, MA Museum Studies, MA Curating Arts and Culture) at the University of Amsterdam. He also initiated and currently coordinates the international Erasmus Exchange Program University of Amsterdam-Bologna University and the research collaboration program 'Critical Heritage Studies and Digital Humanities' between University of Amsterdam-New York University Abu Dhabi (NYUAD).
Saloul supervises several PhD and Postdoc projects and participates in international scholarly committees and research networks. He leads the UvA part of the EU Horizon-2020 Rise Marie Curie project 'SPEME, Questioning Traumatic Heritage: Spaces of Memory in Europe, Argentina, Colombia (2018-2022) which takes as its specific object of investigation a various array of spaces of memory, such as museums, former detention camps and sites of commemoration, to investigate how various traumatic pasts can be preserved and transmitted through space, and which kind of innovative actions might both improve knowledge of the past and serve as an opening to actual issues and new social subjects.
PUBLICATIONS
Books
Questioning Traumatic Heritage: Spaces of Memory in Europe and South America. Ihab Saloul, Patrizia Violi, Anna Maria Lorusso, Cristina Demaria (eds). Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2024
W.G. Sebald’s Artistic Legacies: Memory, Word and Image. Leonida Kovač, Christa-Maria Lerm Hayes, Ilse van Rijn and Ihab Saloul (eds). Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2023
Diasporic Heritage and Identity. Ihab Saloul, Eleri Connick, Lucy Gaynor and Mario Panico (eds). Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2023
Witnessing, Memory and Crisis. Ihab Saloul, Anna Schjott Hansen, Reka Deim, Dawid Grabowski and Mehmet Sulek (eds). Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2022
Editorial Work
Editor Conference Proceedings Series, ‘History, Culture, and Heritage’, Amsterdam University Press
Articles, Book Chapters, Special Journal Issues, Lectures & Conference Papers (Selection)
“Questioning Traumatic Heritages and Spaces of Memory”. In Questioning Traumatic Heritage: Spaces of Memory in Europe and South America. Ihab Saloul, Patrizia Violi, Anna Maria Lorusso, Cristina Demaria (eds). Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 7-20, 2024
“Introduction”. In Diasporic Heritage and Identity. Ihab Saloul, Eleri Connick, Lucy Gaynor and Mario Panico (eds). Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 3-13, 2023
“Introduction”. In Witnessing, Memory and Crisis. Ihab Saloul, Anna Schjott Hansen, Reka Deim, Dawid Grabowski and Mehmet Sulek (eds). Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2-17, 2023
“Spaces of Memory: Heritage, Trauma and Art”. Special Journal Issue, Ihab Saloul, Cristina Demaria, Patrizia Violi, Anna Maria Lorusso (eds), International Journal of Heritage, Memory and Conflict (HMC), Volume 1, issue 2, 1-76, 12 January 2022
“War on terror bleek voedingsbodem voor extremistisch populisme”, de Kanttekening, 10 September 2021
“Opleiding over het koloniaal verleden”, Historisch Nieuwsblad, 24 June, 2021
RESEARCH PROJECTS
Project Leader (PL), ‘DIGHT-Net, Sustainable, Usable and Visible Digital Cultural Heritage: Twinning for Excellence, HORIZON-WIDERA, Tallinn University, University of Bologna, University of Amsterdam, University of Turku, 2024-2027
Ongoing and Completed PhD & Postdoc Supervision
Conference Organisation
Public Events