Hakem Al-Rustom

Hakem Al-Rustom is an Assistant Professor of History and a courtesy appointment in Anthropology at the University of Michigan, where he also holds the Alex Manoogian Professorship of Modern Armenian History. His research bridges historical and anthropological approaches to study silenced narratives, particularly focusing on the Armenian experience post-genocide and diaspora dynamics.

• PhD, Social Anthropology, London School of Economics, 2013
• MSc with Merit, Social Anthropology, London School of Economics, 2002
• BA Honours, Social Anthropology, Dalhousie University, 2001
• BSc, Economics, Dalhousie University, 1999

His research interrogates settler colonialism, memory studies, and critical theory, with a strong emphasis on post-Ottoman societies. He applies frameworks from Walter Benjamin, Frantz Fanon, and Edward Said to analyze historical erasure and the racialization of confessional identities.

Key publications include the upcoming book Enduring Erasures: Afterlives of the Armenian Genocide (2025), and articles/chapters on topics like 'Internal Orientalism in Turkey,' 'Post-Ottoman ethnographies,' and diaspora activism. His work spans disciplines such as anthropology, history, postcolonial theory, and Middle East studies.

Al-Rustom chairs the University Senate Committee on the Economic and Social Well-Being of the Faculty (CESWF) for 2024/25 and teaches crosslisted courses in Armenian, History, and Middle East Studies, including 'Violence and (De)Colonization' and 'History, Memory, and Silence.' He is affiliated with multiple centers at the University of Michigan, including the Center for Armenian Studies and Global Islamic Studies Center.