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 Studies and Narrative at the International Center for Advanced Studies in the Humanities ‘Umberto Eco'  at the University of Bologna. He is also a research domain leader of ‘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 Institute for Advanced Study in Berlin (Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin, WIKO /EUME ), Free University Berlin (Center for Middle Eastern & North African Politics ), Marburg University (CNMS, The Research Network Re-Configurations), and Maastricht University.

Saloul obtained his PhD in the Humanities from the University of Amsterdam. He holds a BA degree in English Literature from Birzeit University (Palestine), an MA in English and Comparative Literature, and MPhil in Cultural Analysis from the Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis (ASCA) at the University of Amsterdam. Saloul’s expertise extend beyond the fields of heritage and memory studies, and encompass cultural memory and conflict, museum studies, literary and narrative theory, identity politics, cultural analysis, post-colonialism, arts, aesthetics and visual culture as well as migration, diaspora and exile in contemporary cultural thought in the Middle East and Europe.

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), and a co-founding Editor-in-Chief of the international peer-reviewed open access journal, ‘International Journal of Heritage, Memory and Conflict’ (HMC ) at the Amsterdam University Press AUP. His recent publications 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). Since 2016 Saloul chairs the Curriculum Committee of the MA Heritage Studies (opleidingscommissie OC master erfgoed: MA Heritage and Memory Studies, MA Museum Studies, MA Curating Arts and Culture) at the University of Amsterdam. He also developed advanced seminars such as the ReMA & PhD seminar (Heritage & Memory Theory, 2015- ) at the Huizinga Institute, the ReMA seminar (Violence and Postcolonial Remembrances, 2017-2019) at the Netherlands Research School for Literary Studies OSL, and the BA honour-program course Competing Memories, 2014-2016) at the faculty of Humanities at the university of Amsterdam. Saloul supervises several PhD and Postdoc projects and participates in international scholarly committees and networks.

Saloul also initiated and currently coordinates two international exchange and research collaboration programs: the international Erasmus Amsterdam-Bologna exchange program and the University of Amsterdam-New York University Abu Dhabi research programs. He also 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

• Martyrdom: Canonisation, Contestation and Afterlives. Ihab Saloul & Jan Willem van Henten (eds). Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2020
• Catastrophe and Exile in the Modern Palestinian Imagination: Telling Memories. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012 (paperback edition, 2018)
• ZOOM IN: Palestinian Refugees of 1948, Remembrances. Dordrecht and Boston: The Republic of Letters, 2011

Editorial Work (International Journals & Book Series)

• Co-Founding Editor-in-chief, International peer-review open access ‘International Journal of Heritage, Memory and Conflict’ (HMC), Amsterdam University Press
• Book Series Editor, “Heritage and Memory Studies”, Amsterdam University Press AUP
• Book Series Editor, “Palgrave Studies in Cultural Heritage and Conflict”, Palgrave MacMillan

Articles, Book Chapters, Special Journal Issues, Lectures & Conference Papers

• “Questioning Traumatic Heritage”, Special Open Access Issue Journal of “Heritage, Memory and Conflict” (HMC), (with Patrizia Violi, Anna Maria Lorusso and Cristina de Maria, Bologna University), Amsterdam University Press, (forthcoming, 2021)
• “Post-Memory and Oral History: Intergenerational Memory and Transnational Identity in Exile”, Visioning Israel-Palestine. Gil Pasternack (ed), London: Bloomsbury, 2020: 244-263
• “Female Martyrdom Operations: Gender and Identity Politics in Palestine”, in Martyrdom: Canonization and Contestation and Afterlives. Ihab Saloul & Jan Willem van Henten (eds). Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2020: 255-283
• Keynote Lecture, "Traumatic Heritage in Conflict”, el Museo Sitio de Memoria ESMA, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2 August 2019
• Film Lecture, “A Tale of Hidden Histories”, EYE Film-museum, Amsterdam, 27 March 2019
• Conference Paper, “Space of Memory: Europe and Latin America”, Memory Studies Association Annual Conference, Madrid, Spain, 25-28 June 2019
• Invited Lecture, “Heritage & Memory Studies in the Present: Traumatic Narratives and Museums”, Bologna University, 18 April 2019
• Invited Lecture, “Competing Memories and Heritages of the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict”, Workshop & Joint Meeting “The Exploitation of the Heritage: between Politics and Economy”, ISUFI, Lecce, Italy, 10-11 May 2018
• Keynote Lecture, “Aesthetics and Performativity in Times of Conflict”, Institute of Advanced Study (Istituto di Studi Superiori, ISA), Bologna University, Italy, 12 December 2017
• International PhD Workshop, “Theory and Interdisciplinarity”, Department of Philosophy and Communication, University of Bologna, Italy, 27 November 2017
• Invited Lecture, “Unwanted Histories’, Netherlands Institute at Athens (NIA), Greece, 1 October 2016
• Conference Paper, “Questioning Aesthetics of Catastrophe and Exile”. Questioning Aesthetics Symposium QAS. Berlin, Germany, 16-19 June 2016
• Invited Seminar, “Only Connect"? Bridging the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict”, Harvard University, Massachusetts, 17-20 March 2016
• Keynote Lecture & Panel, “Museums, Heritage, Memory and Identity”. International Training Seminar “Conservation and Preservation of Cultural Heritage”, Jordan Museum. Amman, Jordan, 15 March 2015
• Panel, “Negotiating the Past in Turkey, Palestine/Israel”, Middle East Re- search Convention, ACMES, University of Amsterdam, 28 January 2015
• Invited MLA Presidential Lecture, "Performing Palestinian and Israeli 'We' in the Aftermath", Modern Language Association (MLA), Vancouver, Canada, 8 January 2015
• Invited MLA Executive Council Panel, “Towards Redrawing the Boundaries of Europe: Current Geopolitical Developments and What We Study”. Modern Language Association (MLA), Vancouver, Canada, 9 January 2015
• “Frozen Events, Competing Memories and Moving Forward: Yael Bartana’s ‘Two Minutes of Standstill’”. In Two Minutes of Standstill. Florian Malzacher (Ed). Berlin: Sternberg Press, 2014: 15-31
• Keynote Lecture, “Trauma Theory, Nostalgia and Active Memories”, University of Koln, 21 November, 2014
• Public Debate, “Beyond the Map: Storytelling across Borders”, Spui25, University of Amsterdam, 24 October 2014
• Lecture, “Yael Bartana’s Inferno 2013”, Stedelijke Museum, Amsterdam, 29 May 2014
• Keynote Lecture, “Memory, Borders and Exile in Photography and Video Art: Ahlam Shibli’s Phantom Home”, IKT International Association of Curators of Contemporary Art, Belfast, Northern Ireland, 11-13 April 2014
• Public Lecture, “Contested Heritage and Identity Politics in Europe and Beyond”, VU University Amsterdam, 14 March 2014
• Keynote Lecture, “Conflict and Transnational Identity”, Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art, Porto, Portugal, 22 November 2013
• International Lecture Series, “Performative Approaches to Intervening in Conflict”, Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art, Porto, Portugal, 23-28 November 2013
• Masterclass, “Art, Memory and Performativity”, Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art, Porto, Portugal, 29-30 November 2013
• Lecture, “Art, Memory and Catastrophe”. Competing Memories International Conference, University of Amsterdam and VU University Amsterdam, 30 October 2013
• Book Response,”Tapestry of Memory: Evidence and Testimony in Life Story Narratives”, NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Amsterdam, 13 September 2013
• Lecture, “Mapping the Field: Integrating Culture in Political Science and Middle East Studies”, The Center for Middle Eastern and North African Politics, Free University Berlin, 10 May 2013
• Lecture, “Transgenerational Memory in Exile”, Transnational Memory and Digitization Workshop, University of Amsterdam, 18 March 2013
• Panelist, “Deficits of Democracy: Arab Revolutions and the Israeli Elections (2012)”, Sociology and Cultural Anthropology Department, University of Amsterdam, 17 January 2013
• Guest lecture, “Border Politics and National Identity”, Literary Studies, University of Amsterdam, 13 December 2012
• Lecture, “’The Right of Return’ in Palestinian Youth Narratives”, Reconsidered Geographies: Territoriality in Israel and Palestine, Free University Berlin, December 5-6, 2012
• Guest lecture, “Islamic Martyrdom, Gender and Nationalism”, Free University Berlin, 13 June 2012
• Keynote lecture, “Exilic Memory and the Politics of the Anti-linear Sound-Im- age”, International workshop, Insight Palestina: Images, Discourses, and the Image of Discourse. Leeds University, UK, 7 June 2012
• Lecture, “Performativity and Political Change”, Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin (Institute for Advanced Study, Berlin), 1 June 2012
• Guest lecture, “Postcolonial Heritage: The Case of Robben Island in Post- Apartheid South Africa”, University of Amsterdam, 29 May, 2012
• Invited Lecture, “Palestinian and Israeli Contested Memories”, Leipzig University, Germany, 24-26 February 2012
• Panelist, “The Arab World in Revolution”, Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin (Institute for Advanced Study, Berlin), 25 January 2012
• “The Afterlives of 1948: Photographic Remembrances in a Time of Catastrophe”. In ZOOM IN: Palestinian Refugees of 1948, Remembrances. Dordrecht and Boston: The Republic of Letters Publishing, 2011: 46-60
• Panelist, “Middle Eastern Revolts 2011 and the Role of the Media”, Maastricht University Alumni Day, May 28, 2011
• Lecture, “The Six-Day and Yom Kippur Wars and the Politics of Remembrance in the Middle East”, Maastricht University, May 24-25 2011
• Guest lecture, “Nostalgia in Arabic Fiction”, Leiden University, 20 April 2011
• Panelist,"Resistance: Image, Visibility, Power, Surveillance", ASCA International Workshop, Practicing Theory, University of Amsterdam, 2-4 March 2011
• Lecture, “Historical Catastrophe and Arab Culture”, International Workshop, Public History and Social Memory, Oxford University, UK, 23-27 January 2011
• “Cultural Analysis and Affective Reading”. In Eighty Eight: Mieke Bal's PhD's, 1983-2011. Murat Aydemir and Esther Peeren (eds). Amsterdam: ASCA Press, 2010: 164-171
• Keynote lecture, “Vagabond Café: Working with Narrative as a Transdisciplinary Concept”, Maastricht PhD Workshop, “What to Do with Narrative?”, Maastricht University, 20 October 2010
• Lecture, “Remembering 1948: Twice Upon a Time”, International Expert Meet- ing, The Inception of the Palestinian Refugees Issue, The Institute for Historical Justice and Reconciliation (IHJR), The Hague, 8-10 July 2010
• Lecture, “Art-Making in Times of Political Transformation: Cultural Poetics and Identity Politics”, 41st Poetry International Festival, Rotterdam, 16-17 June 2010
• Keynote lecture, “The Use and Abuse of History: Transnational Memories in the Middle East”, The Studium Generale Lecture Series, Leiden University, 3 June 2010
• Keynote lecture, “Future Visions of Palestine”, The Middle East Lecture Series, Leiden University, 27 May 2010
• Panel moderator, “Edward Said: Academics, Activism, and Art”, University of Amsterdam, 22 April 2010
• “‘Performative Narrativity’: Palestinian Identity and the Performance of Catastrophe”. Cultural Analysis: An Interdisciplinary Forum on Folklore and Popular Culture. (7) 2009: 5-39
• Panelist, “Intercultural Aesthetics”, The Annual Conference of International Association for Aesthetics (IAA), GIMME SHELTER: Global Discourses in Aesthetics, University of Amsterdam, 8-10 October, 2009
• Panelist, “The History of Zionism Lecture Series”, Department of Religion, University of Amsterdam, 18 March 2009
• “Al-Nakba and Palestinian Identity”. Eutopia (1) 2008: 27-37
• Panelist, Eutopia Magazine, “RUINATION: Reflections on Exile and Identity in Israel/Palestine”, De Balie Theatre, Amsterdam, 17 May 2008
• “‘Exilic Narrativity’: The Invisibility of Home in Exile”. In Essays in Migratory Aesthetics: Cultural Practices between Migration and Art-Making. Sam Durrant and Catherine M. Lord (eds). New York: Redopi, 2007: 111-28
• “The Identification of the Nostalgic”, In Conceptual Odysseys: Passages to Cultural Analysis. Mieke Bal and Griselda Pollock (eds). London and New York: I B Tauris, 2007: 120-38
• Keynote lecture, “Intellectual Encounters: Postcolonial Theory between ‘the Material’ and ‘the Specific’”, Platform for Postcolonial Readings. Institute for Art, Historical and Literary Studies, Leiden University, 24 May 2006
• Conference Paper, “Narrativity and Identity”, ASCA Annual International workshop, Trajectories of Commitment and Complicity: Knowledge, Politics, Cultural Production. Amsterdam, 29-31 March 2006
• Conference Paper, "Writing and Catastrophe", International Workshop Migratory Aesthetics, AHRB-CenterCATH, University of Leeds, 11-13 January 2006
• “Theory and Practice: Acting and Spectating”, Special Online Issue and Platform CASAzine #1 (CASA), Amsterdam, 2005: p.1-15
• Panel moderator, “Joseph Conrad in Amsterdam”, 31st Annual International Conference of the Joseph Conrad Society (UK), University of Amsterdam, 7-9 July 2005
• Conference Paper, “The Diasporic Subject and the Invisibility of Home”, 10th International Cultural Studies Symposium, When Far Away Becomes Home: Cultural Consequences of Migration. EGE University, Izmir, Turkey, 4-6 May 2005
• Conference Paper, “Nostalgia and Identification”, European Summer School for Cultural Studies (ESSCS), Witness: Memory, Representation and the Media in Question, Copenhagen University, Denmark, 23-27 August 2004
• Conference Paper, "Deconstructing Arafat’s Political Myth t", International Society of Political Psychology (ISPP), University of Washington, USA, 12-15 July 2000

RESEARCH PROJECTS

• Project Leader (Pls) EU Horizon2020-MSCA-RISE-2017, ‘SPEME Questioning Traumatic Heritage: Spaces of Memory in Europe, Argentina, Colombia’, 2018-2022

Ongoing and Completed PhD & Postdoc Supervision

• PhD project, “Transnational Conflict Heritage in Europe: Mediatization of Witnessing and Postmemory in Literary, Museum and Filmic Representations”, Dawid Grabowski, University of Amsterdam, 2020-
• PhD Project, “Owning Heritage and the Power of Historic City in Post-Conflict Recovery: The Case-study of Sahat al-Hatab in the Old City of Aleppo”, Abdullah Halawa, New York University Abu Dhabi and University of Amsterdam, 2020-
• Postdoc Project, “Post Memories of War Veterans of WWII in Europe”, Dr. Laurie Slegtenhorst, AHM Amsterdam School or Heritage, Memory and Material Culture, University of Amsterdam, 2019-2020
• Postdoc Project, “Islamic Fundamentalism among Kurdish Community in Iran”, Dr. Farhad Bayani (funded project by the University of Tabriz), AHM Amsterdam School or Heritage, Memory and Material Culture, University of Amsterdam, 2018-2019
• Postdoc Project, “Intergenerational Memory and Kurdish Women”, Dr. Lucie Drechselová, (funded project by Erasmus+ & the Czech Academy of Science), AHM Amsterdam School or Heritage, Memory and Material Culture, University of Amsterdam, September-December, 2018
• Postdoc Project, “Historical Archaeology of Informal Maritime Trade in the Colonial-era Caribbean”, Dr. Konrad A. Antczak, AHM Amsterdam School or Heritage, Memory and Material Culture, University of Amsterdam, 2017
• Postdoc Project, “Memory and Ukrainian Social Media”, Dr. Mykola Makhortykh, AHM Amsterdam School or Heritage, Memory and Material Culture, University of Amsterdam, 2017
• PhD Project, “Mobilisation in Opposition and in Office-Power: Comparing the Roles of Hamas Movement in Gaza”, Imad Soos, Free University Berlin (completed 2017)
• PhD Project, “Dance Intentionality: A Challenge on Documentation Methodologies and Archiving of Intangible Heritage”, Bertha Bermudez, AHM Amsterdam School or Heritage, Memory and Material Culture, University of Amsterdam, 2016-
• PhD Project, “Traumatic Memories of Communism in Hungarian Art, Cinema and Literature after 1989”, Reka Deim, AHM Amsterdam School or Heritage, Memory and Material Culture, University of Amsterdam, 2016-
• PhD Project, “A PostcoloniAl Museum? Legacies of Colonial Histories in Museum Exhibitions in Europe, Africa, North America, and the Caribbean ”, Sarike van Slooten, AHM Amsterdam School or Heritage, Memory and Material Culture, University of Amsterdam, (completed, 2023)
• PhD Project, “Coming Soon: Encounters on the Road to Heritage and Film in the UAE”, Alia Yunis, AHM Amsterdam School or Heritage, Memory and Material Culture, University of Amsterdam (completed, 2020)
• Postdoc Project, “Homes and Museums in Israel”, Dr. Judy Jaffe-Schagen, AHM Amsterdam School or Heritage, Memory and Material Culture, University of Amsterdam, 2015-2016

Conference Organisation

• AHM International Conference, Memory, Word and Image: W.G. Sebald’s Artistic Legacy, with Prof. Christa-Maria Lerm Hayes, Prof. Leonida Kovač, Academy of Fine Art, University of Zagreb, Dr. Ilse van Rijn, Sandberg Institute, University of Amsterdam 12-14 December 2019
• ICOMOS University Forum Workshop, Thinking and Planning the Future in Heritage Management, in collaboration with ICOMOS International and ICOMOS Netherlands, with Cornelius Holtorf, James Symonds and Nour Munawar. University of Amsterdam, 11-14 June 2019
• AHM International Conference, Materialities of Postcolonial Memory, with Dr. Paul Bijl, Dr. Paul Duindam and Dr. Chiara de Cesari, University of Amsterdam, 7-9 December 2017
• Contemporary and Historical Archaeology in Theory (CHAT) International Conference, Heritage, Art, Memory and Agency, with Prof. James Symonds, University of Amsterdam, 3-5 November 2017
• International Expert Meeting, Cross Cultural Martyrdoms, with Prof. Jan Willem van Henten, University of Amsterdam, 8-9 December 2016
• NIAS Workshop, Beyond the Map: Storytelling across Borders, Performativity as Method, with Prof. Robin Boast & Prof. Luiza Bialaizewicz, NIAS, Wassernaar, 27- 29 May 2015
• NIAS Expert Meeting, Connecting Competing Memories of War in Contemporary Europe, with Dr. Francesco Mazzucchelli (University of Bologna), Wassenaar, 6-7 March 2014
• 4-Day International Conference, Competing Memories, with Prof. Rob van der Laarse, University of Amsterdam and VU University Amsterdam, 29 October— 1 November 2013
• ASCA International Conference, Trajectories of Commitment and Complicity: Knowledge, Politics, Cultural Production, with Dr. Sarah de Mul, Dr. Sonja van Wichelen, Dr. Bregje van Eekelen, University of Amsterdam, 29-31 March 2006
• Cultural Analysis Summer Academy, Borders, Markets and Movements,(CASA), with Dr. Begum Firat (Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University), and Dr. Cornelia Gräbner (Lancaster University) , Amsterdam, 17-20 June 2005
• Cultural Analysis Summer Academy, Theory and Practice, (CASA), with Dr. Cornelia Gräbner (Lancaster University) and Dr. Begum Firat (Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University), Amsterdam, 2-5 July 2004

Public Events

• Panel, “48 Stories: Launch of a Collaborative Photography Project Documenting the Palestinian Catastrophe”, Pakhuis de Zwijger, Amsterdam, 18 May 2018
• International Museum Training Seminar, “Conservation and Preservation of Cultural Heritage”, University of Amsterdam & Leiden Museum Delegates. The Jordan Museum & Department of Antiquities, Amman, Jordan, 13-20 March 2015
• Film Interview, UvA Research Priority Area “Cultural Heritage and Identity”, Hoofdzaken Film Series, November 2014,
• Museum Seminar and Film Cycle, “Cinema and Transnational Identity”, Porto, Portugal, 28 November-1 December, 2013
• Public Lecture, “Palestinian Resistance Literature in the Present”, International Literature Festival Amsterdam Read My World, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 14 September 2013
• Public Seminar, “Paradigms of Historical Erasure and Denial in the Middle East”, Filmtheater Hoogt’s Utrecht, The Netherlands, February 13, 2010
• Radio Interview, “Cultural Memory and Identity in Palestinian Exile”, Radio Netherlands Worldwide (RNW), The Netherlands, April 3, 2009
• Documentary Film, “Nioscoop: Crisis in Gaza”, De Nederlandse Islamitische Omroep (NMO), January 11, 2009
• TV interview, “9/11 and Migrant identities in The Netherlands”, De Nederlandse Islamitische Omroep (NMO), January 10, 2002