UNE’s Ali Ahmida gives keynote in Egypt’s capital about origins of genocide
Ali Ahmida, Ph.D., professor and founding chair for the University of New England’s Political Science program in the School of Social and Behavioral Sciences, recently presented a keynote address about the origins of genocide at the Egyptian Council of Culture in Cairo in March.
The presentation, “The Concept of Genocide: Origins, Theories, and Contemporary Significance, a Multidisciplinary Perspective,” was given on March 7 to a well-attended group of scholars, graduate students, and invited guests. Ahmida gave the talk at the invitation of UNESCO expert Nahla Imam, Ph.D.
In his presentation, Ahmida outlined the need to take genocide seriously and go beyond the traditional, narrow method of study in the area. He also discussed the concept’s origin — the term “genocide” was coined by the late Polish legal scholar Raphe Lemkin in 1944 — and examined two instrumentalist theories of Holocaust studies: the political theory of the three scholars Hannah Arendt, Michel Foucault, and Giorgio Agamben and their blind spots regarding Colonial genocide and its impact on the Holocaust.
Ahmida developed his talk in line with the focus of his two decades of research in genocide and his latest book, “Genocide in Libya: Shar, A Hidden Colonial History.”
In the book, Ahmida recovers the overlooked atrocities of fascist Italian concentration camps in Libya between 1929 and 1934 through the oral testimonies and unexplored archival materials of survivors — shining a light on the narratives that had remained hidden from global view until recently.
Ahmida is an expert on North African and Libyan relations and is one of three scholars chosen by the United Nations to work on The Libya Socioeconomic Dialogue Project.