Lorenzo Kamel

Lorenzo Kamel (born 1980) is a historian of the modern and contemporary Middle East.

Biography

He is a Marie Curie historian (hab. associate professor) at the University of Freiburg's Institute for Advanced Studies (FRIAS), where he lectures on the history of the modern and contemporary Middle East,^[1] and, since 2013, an Associate at Harvard University’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies (CMES), where he served as a Postdoctoral Fellow for two academic years^[2] with a project entitled "Artificial Nations? The Sykes-Picot and the Islamic State’s narratives in a historical perspective".^[3] He is also a senior research fellow at the Istituto Affari Internazionali (IAI),^[4] where he serves as the books series editor, the scientific director of the project "New-Med, The Future of Cooperation in the Mediterranean”,^[5] and the IAI scientific coordinator of MENARA (Middle East and North Africa regional architecture), an Horizon2020 project co-lead by CIDOB and IAI.

He holds a laurea magistrale in philosophy from La Sapienza University of Rome, a two-year M.A. in Israeli society and politics from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and a Ph.D. in history from Bologna University. He held seminars, lessons and courses in a number of Italian and international universities and lived for years in several countries in the Middle East, including, as a visiting fellow, in the Palestinian Territories (Birzeit University), Egypt ('Ain Shams University), Israel (Hebrew University), and Turkey (Bilkent University). He speaks Italian, English, Hebrew, Arabic and has a working knowledge of French, Ottoman Turkish, and Latin.

Publications

He published eight books on Middle Eastern and Mediterranean affairs,^[6] including "Imperial perceptions of Palestine: British Influence and Power in Late Ottoman Times", a widely acclaimed book^[7] based on sources from 17 archives and a plethora of written and oral primary source material.^[8] His publications include also over 30 articles on academic journals such as British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies,^[9] Mediterranean Politics,^[10] Peace and Change,^[11] Eurasian Studies,^[12] New Middle Eastern Studies,^[13] Passato e Presente,^[14] Oriente Moderno,^[15] The International Spectator,^[16] Storicamente,^[17] and about 200 articles and policy papers on Al Jazeera,^[18] Ha'aretz,^[19] Al-Monitor,^[20] Project Syndicate,^[21] The Daily Star (Lebanon),^[22] The National Interest (Washington),^[23] The National (Abu Dhabi),^[24] Opinio Juris,^[25] Aspen,^[26] Eurasia Review, Middle East Eye,^[27] openDemocracy,^[28] e-International Relations (e-IR),^[29] Middle East Policy Council,^[30] Pravda, Middle East Monitor (MEMO), The Jerusalem Post, +972mag,^[31] The Hill,^[32] Limes,^[33] Muftah,^[34] The Forward,^[35] The Huffington Post, Al-Araby Al-Jadeed,^[36] Equilibri,^[37] Affari Internazionali, and other media outlets in 10 languages, in over 30 countries.

He is a board member of a number of academic journals, including Palgrave Communications^[38] and Passato e Presente,^[39] and frequently acts as a peer-reviewer for the European Research Council (ERC Consolidator Grant “The Study of the Human Past”), Routledge, International Affairs (Chatham House), and other institutions, publishing houses and journals.

Prizes

He was awarded with the 2010 "Giuseppe Sciacca International Prize",^[40] the Fritz Thyssen Stiftung Grant (2015), and the 2016 "Palestine Book Award" (1st prize, academic section).^[41]

References