Hakim Ikhlef is a French-born Algerian historian, cultural theorist, and writer. Currently based in Florence, he was born in Paris, and it is in this city that he spent his formative years, studying History and Humanities at the University Denis Diderot. During this period, he studied under the supervision of the late emeritus professor Claude Liauzu (1940-2007), the benevolent guidance of professor of Latin American History Jean Piel (1936-2017), and the mentorship of the late historian and political theorist Americo Nunes (1939-2024). These were also years of intense social and political activism while being initiated into political philosophy and postcolonial theory. These years of initiation were marked by his critical readings of philosophers and intellectuals like Marx, Gramsci, and Lukacs; Guy Debord and Cornelius Castoriadis; Franz Fanon; and, among others, the Indian group known as Subaltern Studies.

Enrolled as a PhD candidate at the European University of Florence In 2007, he therefore moved to Italy, where he is still based. Eventually, he obtained his PhD in History and Civilisation in 2014 with a thesis titled Contentious Orientalism: Bengali Intellectuals at the Asiatic Society of Bengal; Circa 1829-Circa 1885, which was supervised by Professor Sebastian Conrad (Free University of Berlin). Other members of the jury included historians Antonella Romano of the CNRS of Paris and David Washbrook of Oxford University. Hakim Ikhlef’s fields of inquiry initially focused on the history of European representations of Islam. Deeply marked by the oeuvre of the late Edward W. Said, his research led him to build a reflection on orientalism as a particular expression of the relation between (European) culture and imperialism. His research led him to eventually extend his inquiries to encompass other areas of South Asia.

Among other works, he wrote a chapter in a book that resulted from an international conference held in Kolkata in 2010: Ikhlef, Hakim (2014). Constructive orientalism: debates on languages and educational policies in Colonial India, 1830-1880. In Barnita Bagchi (ed.), Connecting histories of education: transnational and cross-cultural exchanges in (post-)colonial education. London: Berghahn Books. A polyglot inspired by François Rabelais' humanist manifesto Gargantua’s Letter to Pantagruel, Hakim Ikhlef is genuinely fond of languages and literature. It may be interesting to point out that the question of language was one central concern of his doctoral research. He likes writing on a wide variety of topics in English, Italian, and French. While the latter is Hakim’s native language, he learned English as his first foreign language and the language in which he wrote and defended his doctoral thesis.

Having learned the basics of Italian, he perfected his knowledge of the language to the point that it has almost become a second mother tongue, having been living in Italy for more than a decade. Besides history and political philosophy, Hakim Ikhlef has a multitude of interests. He takes particular interest in sciences, especially physics. He likes reading articles and listening to podcasts on the subject, even though he admits to not being able to write down complicated yet beautiful equations on the blackboard. However, he takes seriously some concepts from physics, like indetermination and entanglement, and wonders how they may contribute to advancing reflection in the humanities. In his spare time, Hakim loves playing music, and he enjoys going to theaters and auditoriums to listen to orchestras and performances one can attend in the magnificent city of Florence. Luckily, Florence also offers many opportunities to listen to artists and musicians from all over the world and from different musical traditions.

As a dilettante, Hakim plays musical instruments too. Since childhood, Hakim was lucky to take lessons in drawing, painting, and pottery. Without great pretension, he has kept with the production of works of art. The son of a chef, Hakim’s got a keen interest in food and cooking. So much so that his interest in world cuisines led him to attend professional training as he considered, in the pre-COVID times, opening a restaurant. A good part of Hakim’s free time is also devoted to the practice of Chinese martial arts. He’s been training for ten years with Sifu Stefano Vecchiarello, who is also a psychomotor specialist and educator.

Sifu Stefano taught him Wing Chun kung and the rudiments of Qigong and Taiji, grouped under the concept of San Yi, the Three Virtues. Hakim keeps training with him in view of becoming a Wing Chun instructor. Hakim has joined Meer because he’s willing to share knowledge and exchange with a wide audience and readership. Thanks to Meer, he can get this satisfaction from interacting with a wide range of people who share his thirst for knowledge and are eager to push new ideas forward. Thus, he hopes he’ll contribute to people’s improvement and that they would contribute to fostering his own.