Saladdin Ahmed, NUIEC Scholar Lecture Series
Country of Origin: Iraq
Location: Canada
“Social Space, Exile, and Critical Philosophy in the Age of Extremism”
My research and teaching are interdisciplinary, spanning philosophy and linguistics as well as
political theory, comparative politics, international relations, social and critical theory, sociology,
cultural studies, social movements, human geography, and Middle East and North African
studies. Within these fields, my work focuses particularly on philosophy and critical theory, with
a sustained interest in social and political space. As a philosopher of social space, I examine the
relationships among spatiality, aesthetics, biopolitics, ideology critique, historical materialism,
displacement, marginality, and political life. My research also addresses fascism and antifascism,
racism and antiracism, minorities, nationalism, political movements, and the social and political
conditions of the Middle East and North Africa.
I come from a Kurdish family in Kirkuk, Iraq. My early publications included two books in
Kurdish, published in Iraq, and an Arabic literary work published in Syria by the Arab Writers
Union Press. I have subsequently published seven books in English, including six
interdisciplinary monographs and a literary volume. My forthcoming book, Exile and Spatiality,
is under contract with De Gruyter and develops my ongoing research on exile, displacement, and
the production and experience of social space.
I would be very glad to give lectures, participate in panels or conferences, and engage in
discussions with colleagues and students in the humanities and social sciences, as well as with
broader public audiences. I am also open to developing presentations on related topics in political philosophy, critical theory, sociology, cultural studies, geography, political science, international relations, and
Middle East and North African studies, or to adapting a lecture to the interests of a particular
department, program, conference, or audience.
Possible lecture topics include, but are not limited to:
- Fascism in the Middle East: Nationalism, Islamism, and Imagining Other Futures
(Routledge, 2025) - Fascism or Whatever You Want to Call It: Confronting the Beast Locally and Globally
(De Gruyter, 2025) - The Death of Home: Aura and Space in the Age of Digitalization (De Gruyter, 2024)
- Elsewhereness: Antipoetry (Daraja Press, 2024)
- Critical Theory from the Margins: Horizons of Possibility in the Age of Extremism
(SUNY Press, 2023) - Revolutionary Hope after Nihilism: Marginalized Voices and Dissent (Bloomsbury
Academic, 2022) - Totalitarian Space and the Destruction of Aura (SUNY Press, 2019)
- Exile and Spatiality (forthcoming; under contract with De Gruyter)
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4636-8217
Website: www.bahozde.com
Willing to share personal story.