Maghrib in Past & Present | Podcasts

Entretien avec Dr. Asma Nouira : Les relations entre l'État et la religion en Tunisie

Episode 114: Entretien avec Dr. Asma Nouira : Les relations entre l'État et la religion en Tunisie

Dans ce podcast, Dr. Asma Nouira présente ses recherches sur les relations entre l'État et la religion en Tunisie. Ayant commencé avec une analyse du rôle du Mufti de la République en Tunisie, le spectre de cette recherche s'est élargi pour inclure les divers acteurs religieux en Tunisie, notamment après la révolution du 14 janvier 2011. Dr. Nouira analyse l'évolution de cette dynamique relationnelle entre État et religion à travers une exploration de l'histoire des institutions religieuses tunisiennes, de l'évolution des interprétations des textes de droit ainsi que de l'impact de l'ascension de l'Islam politique à l'aube de la révolution tunisienne. À travers cette recherche de longue durée, Dr. Nouira développe une compréhension particulière du concept d'Islam d'État en Tunisie, de ses usages complexes par les différents acteurs ainsi que des différents sens qu'il a pu avoir à travers l'histoire du pays et des acteurs politiques. 

Asma Nouira est maître de conférences en sciences politiques, habilitée à diriger des recherches universitaires et ancienne Directrice du département des sciences politiques à la Faculté de droit et des sciences politiques de Tunis (FDPST), Université de Tunis El Manar. Elle a également travaillé sur les thématiques des partis politiques, du genre, de la décentralisation, et la démocratisation en Tunisie. Dr. Nouira est membre fondateur de l'Observatoire tunisien de la transitions démocratique (OTTD), crée en 2011.

Sous forme d'entretien avec Dr. Meriem Guetat, Directrice Adjointe du Centre d'Études Maghrébines à Tunis (CEMAT), ce podcast s'inscrit dans le cadre du cycle de conférences « Conversations en droit et sociétés » et a été enregistré le 20 décembre 2019 au CEMAT.

Posté par: Hayet Lansari, Bibliothécaire / Chargée de la diffusion des activités scientifiques (CEMA).

À la découverte de copies manuscrites d'une même œuvre : Le 'Kitâb al-siyar' de Wisyânî, un auteur Ibâdite Nord-Africain du 6ème AH. / 12ème

Episode 113: À la découverte de copies manuscrites d'une même œuvre : Le 'Kitâb  al-siyar' de Wisyânî, un auteur Ibâdite Nord-Africain du 6ème AH. / 12ème

Constituant une ressource appréciable pour les sciences humaines et sociales, les manuscrits berbères écrits en caractères arabes sont répartis un peu partout dans les pays du Maghreb. Un bon nombre de ces manuscrits se trouve dans des bibliothèques publiques mais beaucoup d’autres appartiennent à des particuliers.

 

La journée d’étude organisée par le Centre d'Études Maghrébines en Algérie (CEMA) intitulée: Reflexions autour des manuscrits maghrébins, s’adresse aux chercheurs, enseignants-chercheurs et doctorants qui s’intéressent aux manuscrits. Les approches mobilisées dans les différentes communications programmées dans le cadre de cette journée sont riches et variées par les objets qu’elles traitent. Elles se penchent chacune à leur manière sur l’identification et la conservation des fonds documentaires, la paléographie, la codicologie, l’étude du contenu qui font l’objet de plusieurs branches de savoir telles les humanités numériques qui peuvent offrir des perspectives insoupçonnées.

Dans ce podcast Pr. Ouahmi Ould-Braham nous emmène à la découverte de copies manuscrites d’une même œuvre : le Kitâb al- siyar de El Wisyânî, un auteur ibâdite nord-africain du 6e H. / 12e siècle. Notre conférencier revient d’abord et avec force détails sur le climat socioculturel post-fatimide (11ème /12ème siècle), marqué par les travaux d’un certain nombre d’écrivains et de poètes dont El Wisyânî. Il retrace ensuite la trajectoire de ce manuscrit issu d’une chronique ibadite en vieux berbère (dans ses différentes variantes).

Ouahmi Ould-Braham est qualifié professeur des universités par le CNU et habilité (7e Section, Sciences du langage). Il est aussi un berbérisant reconnu dans son champ de compétences, ayant produit des études sur diverses personnalités, dont l’historien Masqueray, sujet d’une thèse soutenue avec succès, et sur un certain nombre d’objets littéraires ou linguistiques. D’autres investigations l’ont mené vers le berbère médiéval et d’autres encore vers la tradition orale contemporaine. Connu depuis plusieurs années, d’abord pour avoir fondé et maintenu la revue académique Études et Documents Berbères (40 numéros parus jusqu’ici), domiciliée à la Maison des Sciences de l’Homme - Paris Nord et devenue une publication interuniversitaire reconnue. Depuis l’année 2002, il a lancé le « Projet berbère multimédia » qui est en train de générer la préfiguration de la Bibliothèque numérique berbère. Il travaille actuellement sur la valorisation numérique des manuscrits berbères en graphie arabe, un projet qui associera plusieurs établissements de France et des pays du Maghreb.

 

Cet episode s'inscrit dans le cadre du cycle de conférences « Langues et sociétés au Maghreb ». Il a été enregistré à l’occasion de la journée d’études « Reflexions autour des manuscrits maghrébins », qui a eu lieu le 12 février 2020 au Centre d'Études Maghrébines en Algérie  (CEMA). Dr. Karim Ouaras,  Maître de conférences à l’Université d’Oran 2 et Directeur adjoint du CEMA a modéré le débat.

 

Nous remercions notre ami Ignacio Villalón, étudiant en master à l'EHESS, pour sa prestation à la guitare du titre A vava Inouva de Idir pour l'introduction et la conclusion de ce podcast.

 

Réalisation et montage: Hayet Lansari, Bibliothécaire / Chargée de la diffusion des activités scientifiques (CEMA). 

 

Terra Incognita: Mapping the Afterlives of French Nuclear Imperialism in the Sahara

Episode 112: Terra Incognita: Mapping the Afterlives of French Nuclear Imperialism in the Sahara

 

How can aesthetic works and humanities training help us to apprehend the danger that nuclear toxicity poses to ecological health and human life?

 

Taking off from the premise that French maps of the Sahara Desert have long served to enable military occupation and violent erasure, this podcasts explores how aesthetic works such as film and photography can act as countercartographies that push back against the dangerous idea of the desert as empty space.

 

Beginning in 1960, the French military carries out seventeen nuclear bomb detonations at two secret bases they built for this purpose in the Algerian Sahara. The desert sites near Reggane and In Ekker were selected for their supposed remoteness and emptiness – according to the French state, for purposes of safety, cleanliness, and containment. Of course, the Sahara is anything but empty, and these deadly bombs were anything but safe, clean, or contained. The term 'afterlife' recognizes that nuclear imperialism is not a past problem, but a present and future one.

 

In this talk, Dr. Jill Jarvis, Assistant Professor in the Department of French at Yale University, discusses maps and images taken in and around the village of Mertoutek, whose residents were in the direct path of radioactive cloud released during the underground detonation of the bomb named 'Béryl' at nearby In Ekker in 1962. A striking document of this disaster and its enduring impact is the short documentary film At(h)ome, by Elisabeth Leuvrey, inspired by landscape photographs taken of the site by Bruno Hadjih. Leuvrey's and Hadjih's works combine image and sound to chart an archival blank zone where old taboos on naming French colonial violence intersect with present state secrets. As it stands, aesthetic works – photography, film, poetry, narrative, song – might be among the forms best attuned to register this toxic afterlife, and to train us to recognize and reckon with nuclear imperialism much differently than do our governments and legal systems.

 

This episode is part of “Health and Humanities in the Maghrib” a lecture series by the American Institute for Maghrib Studies (AIMS), organized by the Centre d'Études Maghrébines à Tunis (CEMAT) and the Centre d'Études Maghrébines en Algérie (CEMA), in close collaboration with the Tangier American Legation Institute for Moroccan Studies (TALIM). It was recorded on the 19th of November 2020 between Oran, New Haven (CT), Ithaca (NY) and Tunis. Dr. Samia Henni, Assistant Professor in the Department of Architecture at Cornell University, moderated the lecture and debate.

Posted by: Hayet Lansari, Librarian, Outreach Coordinator, Content Curator (CEMA).

Non-State Actors and State-Building in Libya after 2011

Episode 111: Non-State Actors and State-Building in Libya after 2011

In this podcast, Professor Amal El-Obeidi discusses power struggles in Libya, as well as the country's instability since 2011. In the absence of a central state after the fall of Qaddafi's regime, processes of national reconciliation and transitional justice have been ineffective. Additionally, the increased number of municipalities after 2014 has led to new political divisions. El-Obeidi argues that local-level governing coalitions have often filled the void of state sovereignty and worked to reduce marginalization, as well as ensure equal access to resources. She focuses specifically on the increasing role of non-state actors in national reconciliation. In this context, tribes played a significant role in Libya's political and social life through ‘urf, or customary law. El-Obeidi highlights the position of women in local reconciliation dialogs within male-dominated councils. In addition to her research, El-Obeidi also speaks of the ways in which academic life has changed significantly for Libya scholars since 2011. The conflict in Libya has not only impacted academic facilities, but has made field research difficult, if not impossible. 

 

Amal El-Obeidi is Professor of Comparative Politics in the Department of Political Science at the University of Benghazi, Libya. Currently she is a fellow researcher at the Institute for African Studies at Bayreuth University, Germany. She is a founding member and vice president of the Libyan Experts Forum for Development since 2017. Author of Political Culture in Libya, her work has appeared in Open Democracy and Middle East Monitor. Prof. El-Obeidi's research interests include gender issue, local reconciliation, governance and security issues, migration, conflict resolution, and peace building. Her current research addresses tribalism in Libya from a gender perspective. 

 

Jacob Mundy, Associate Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies at Colgate University, conducted this interview on November 23, 2020. This podcast is part of the "Supporting Critical Research and Strengthening Scholarly Capacity in Algeria, Libya, and Tunisia" project organized by the Centre d'Études Maghrébines à Tunis (CEMAT) and the Centre d'Études Maghrébines en Algérie (CEMA), and funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York. Prof. Mundy heads the contemporary Libya studies research unit, of which Prof. El-Obeidi is a member.

 

Posted by: Hayet Lansari, Librarian, Outreach Coordinator, Content Curator (CEMA).

Centralization and Decentralization in the Middle East and North Africa

Episode 110: Centralization and Decentralization in the Middle East and North Africa

 

In this podcast on local governance in Morocco and Jordan, Dr. Janine A. Clark, Professor of Political Science at the University of Toronto, examines how decentralization and centralization mechanisms are implemented at the municipal level. She asks why Morocco decentralized while Jordan did not. Relying on the history of electoral politics and municipal laws in both countries, her research covers the periods from Morocco's independence until 2015, and from 1995 to 2015 in Jordan. Her work specifically considers the 2009 municipal elections in Morocco, and the 2007 municipal elections in Jordan. Clark argues that decentralization processes are determined by governments' coalition strategies since regimes tend to build alliances with certain social groups that keep them in power through elite capture. This, decentralization offers numerous opportunities for local elites to pursue their interests. Clark too shows how decentralization stabilizes authoritarian regimes while centralization can have destabilizing effects.

 

Janina A. Clark. is author of Local Politics in Jordan and Morocco (Columbia University Press, 2018), Islam, Charity, and Activism: Middle-Class Networks and Social Welfare in Egypt, Jordan, and Yemen (Indiana University Press, 2004) and co-editor of Economic Liberalization, Democratization and Civil Society in the Developing World (Palgrave, 2000), and of numerous single and co-authored articles. She is editor-in-chief of Middle East Law and Governance (MELG).

 

This episode is part of the Society & Politics in the Maghrib series and was recorded on January 13th, 2020 at the Centre d'Études Maghrébines à Tunis (CEMAT).

 

Posted by: Hayet Lansari, Librarian, Outreach Coordinator, Content Curator (CEMA).

Bread and Circuits: Illness, Food, and the Course of Empire in Algeria

Episode 109: Bread and Circuits: Illness, Food, and the Course of Empire in Algeria

In the midst of ongoing drought, famine, and epidemic disease in the 1860s, a few settlers in Algiers got sick with a mysterious illness. Investigations determined that the culprit was construction debris from the Haussmannization of Paris, shipped across imperial channels and then used as fuel in a few Algiers bakeries. Lead pain become poison in loaves as this material combusted in colonial bread ovens. The modernization of the imperial metropole, that is, turned into toxic debris in the colony. In this podcast, Dr. Brock Cutler takes a look at how this story about poisoned bread can expose the filaments that tied together an imperial space in the western Mediterranean, along the way illuminating the role bread played in performances of modern imperialism.

Dr. Brock Cutler is an Associate Professor in the Department of History at Radford University. He is the author of numerous articles and book chapters dealing with ecology and history in North Africa. His forthcoming book, "Crisis Ecologies: Imperialism, Death, and Debris in Algeria," centered around a massive ecological disaster in which 800,000 Algerians died between 1865 and 1872, explores how the new eco-social dynamics in the late nineteenth century cleaved societies from environments and people from society, creating the new insides and outsides of modernity and imperialism.

This episode is part of “Health and Humanities in the Maghrib” a lecture series by the American Institute for Maghrib Studies (AIMS), organized by the Centre d'Études Maghrébines à Tunis (CEMAT) and the Centre d'Études Maghrébines en Algérie (CEMA), in close collaboration with the Tangier American Legation Institute for Moroccan Studies (TALIM). It was recorded on the 15th of October 2020 between Oran, Radford (VA), St. Petersburg (FL) and Tunis. Dr. Adam Guerin, Associate Professor in the Department of History at Eckerd College, moderated the lecture and debate.

To see related slides visit our web site www.themaghribpodcast.com

We thank Dr. Jonathan Glasser, Cultural Anthropologist at the College of William & Mary for his istikhbar in sika on viola for the introduction and conclusion of this podcast.

 

Realization and editing:  Hayet Lansari, Librarian, Outreach Coordinator, Content Curator (CEMA).

Anti-Elitism in Tunisia: Condition of Political Success?

Episode 108: Anti-Elitism in Tunisia: Condition of Political Success?

In this podcast, Associate Professor Tarek Kahlaoui reflects on populism in the post-revolutionary context of Tunisia. Kahlaoui questions the idea of an umbrella definition of Tunisian populism, a misleading term that overlooks important nuances. He asks whether populism is a real threat to representative democracy. He compares the two distinctive frontrunners of the 2019 presidential elections, Kais Saied and Nabil Karoui.

 

Associate Prof. Kahlaoui taught history and Islamic civilization at Rutgers University for a decade after completing his Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania in 2008. After serving as the general director of the Tunisian Institute of Strategic Studies, Tunisia's leading think tank tied to the Presidency of the Republic, he resumed teaching history of the Arab World at the South Mediterranean University in Tunis. He is author of a 2020 book on Ahmed Ben Salah, a powerful super-minister under Tunisia's first president, Habib Bourguiba.

 

This podcast, in CEMAT's Politics Now lecture series, was recorded as part of the roundtable on "Populism, Politics and Popularity - Reflections on the Politics of Today," organized by the Centre d'Études Maghrébines à Tunis (CEMAT) on February 6, 2020, at Le 15 in downtown Tunis.

 

Posted by: Hayet Lansari, Librarian, Outreach Coordinator, Content Curator (CEMA).

الشعبوية: قراءة حول المثال التونسي

Episode 107: الشعبوية: قراءة حول المثال التونسي

في هذا التسجيل الصوتي، يناقش الأستاذ محمد شفيق صرصار آثار الخطاب الشعبوي الذي عرفه المشهد السياسي التونسي منذ 2011 على نتائج الانتخابات المتعاقبة في البلاد، كما يربط هذه الظاهرة ببروز الشخصيات السياسية الشعبوية في الإنتخابات الرئاسية والتشريعية ل 2019. ويأتي الأستاذ صرصار على العوامل التي أعدت المناخ السياسي التونسي لصعود الخطابات الشعبوية مؤكدا على أن تظافر أزمة الأحزاب السياسية والمؤسسات الديمقراطية بتعمق الإشكاليات الاجتماعية والاقتصادية، قد عبّد الطّريق لظهور اوليغارشية سياسية جديدة سيطرت على مسار البناء السياسي والديمقراطي في تونس منذ 2011. ويعتبر الأستاذ أن المناخ السياسي المتسم بفشل السياسيين في تحقيق المطالب الاجتماعية والاقتصادية للثورة وإيغالهم في الانعزال عن المشاغل الشعبية يفسر إلى حد كبير شعبية الشخصيات السياسية التي تتماهى وفكرة "الشعب" محاولة تقمص مشاعره ومطالبه عبر الخطاب والممارسة الشعبوية. 

محمد شفيق صرصار هو أستاذ القانون العام بكلية الحقوق والعلوم السياسية بتونس- جامعة تونس المنار والرئيس السابق للهيئة العليا المستقلة للانتخابات (2014-2017). وقد تولى الأستاذ صرصار، غداة الثورة التونسية في 2011 عضوية لجنة الخبراء بالهيئة العليا المستقلة لتحقيق أهداف الثورة والإصلاح السياسي والانتقال الديمقراطي.  

تم تسجيل هذه الحلقة من المحاضرات عن "السياسة اليوم" في إطار الندوة التي نظمها مركز الدراسات المغاربية بتونس بتاريخ 6 فيفري 2020 حول "الشعبوية، السياسة والشعبية: تأملات حول سياسات اليوم" بفضاء "Le Quinze " بتونس. 

Posted by: Hayet Lansari, Librarian, Outreach Coordinator, Content Curator (CEMA).

Populism and the Crisis of the Republic

Episode 106: Populism and the Crisis of the Republic

In this podcast, Professor Charles Tripp argues that populism is a form of collective politics that embodies distinct ideas, particularly those about popular sovereignty. Populism, he stresses, claims to communicate and respond directly to the political base – the people – by passing increasingly unpopular political elites and institutions. Three features characterize populism: (1) demagogic simplification; (2) anti-representative confrontation of below and above; and (3) assertion of a clear and uniform will of the people. The rise of populism is a symptom of a crisis of governance and particularly a crisis of the republic, which fails to fulfill its promises of citizen equality. From this perspective, populism becomes a technique for disguising deep inequalities of power.

Charles Tripp is Professor Emeritus of Politics with reference to the Middle East and North Africa at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, and is a Fellow of the British Academy. His PhD was from SOAS and examined Egyptian politics in the latter years of monarchy. At SOAS he had been head of the Centre for Middle Eastern Studies and is one of the co-founders of the Centre for Comparative Political Thought. His research has mainly focused on political developments in the Middle East and includes the nature of autocracy, war and the state, as well as Islamic political thought, the politics of resistance and the relationship between art and power. He is currently working on a study of the emergence of the public and the rethinking of republican ideals in North Africa.

 

This podcast, in CEMAT's Politics Now lecture series, was recorded as part of the roundtable on "Populism, Politics and Popularity - Reflections on the Politics of Today," organized by the Centre d'Études Maghrébines à Tunis (CEMAT) on February 6, 2020, at Le 15 in downtown Tunis.

 

Posted by: Hayet Lansari, Librarian, Outreach Coordinator, Content Curator (CEMA).

Jedba, Jinns, and Hāl: Bodily Modalities of Mental-Emotional Health and 'Musico-thérapie' in Algeria

Episode 105: Jedba, Jinns, and Hāl: Bodily Modalities of Mental-Emotional Health and 'Musico-thérapie' in Algeria

In this podcast, Dr. Tamara Turner illustrates the inextricable relationship between mental-emotional health, sound, and consciousness through a spectrum of 'psychological' states that are locally mapped in Algeria as bodily modalities: jedba, hāl, and bori. These three bodily modalities constitute a wide and fluctuating spectrum of musically-cultivated, ritual trance dancing seen in various contexts from weddings and festivals to 'Sufi' hadrat, particularly among the Dīwān of Sīdī Bilāl tarīqa. Drawing from in-depth ethnographic fieldwork on Morocco and Algeria, Dr. Turner shows how notions of 'music' exceed social, symbolic, and aesthetic valence because sound and music are thought about medicinally as vibrating agents in ongoing health maintenance.

A cultural anthropologist, Dr. Tamara Turner is a researcher at the Center for the History of Emotions at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin. Her research is at the intersection of psychological anthropology, musical and performance practice, and affect studies. She specializes in North African Sufism, anthropology of religion and medicine, and the links between cultural notions of affect, consciousness, and mental-emotional health. Her doctoral thesis was the first research to thoroughly document the musical repertoire, practice, and history of Algerian dīwān, a nocturnal trance ritual of the Bilaliyya Sufi Order that emerged out of the trans-Saharan slave trade. As a musician as well as a scholar, she studied with ritual musicians and experts, attending and documenting dīwān rituals across Algeria from the Mediterranean coast to the Saharan Desert. Analytically, Dr. Turner's work investigates the critical role of emotions and affects in rituals in general, particularly as they pertain to varieties of altered states of 'consciousness,' social and trans-personal pain and suffering, and memory. In 2017, her doctoral thesis won an Elsevier Outstanding Thesis prize. Her research in Algeria and Morocco has previously been funded by various grants from King's College London, the British Forum for Ethnomusicology, the Centre d'Études Maghrébines en Algérie, and the West African Research Association.

This episode is part of “Health and Humanities in the Maghrib” a lecture series by the American Institute for Maghrib Studies (AIMS), organized by the Centre d'Études Maghrébines à Tunis (CEMAT) and the Centre d'Études Maghrébines en Algérie (CEMA), in close collaboration with the Tangier American Legation Institute for Moroccan Studies (TALIM). It was recorded on the 1st of October 2020 between Berlin, Oran, and Tunis. Dr. Robert P. Parks, CEMA Director, moderated the lecture and debate.

To see related slides please visit our web site: www.themaghribpodcast.com

We thank Dr. Tamara Turner, Ethnomusicologist and Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Center for the History of Emotions, for her interpretation of Sidna Ali, from the  diwan repertoir.  

Realization and editing:  Hayet Lansari, Librarian, Outreach Coordinator, Content Curator (CEMA).

Of Jinn Theory and Germ Theory: Translating Bacteriological Medicine and Islamic Law in Algeria

Episode 104: Of Jinn Theory and Germ Theory: Translating Bacteriological Medicine and Islamic Law in Algeria

In this podcast, focusing on colonial Algeria c. 1890 to 1940, Dr. Hannah-Louise Clark explores how Muslim intellectuals and ordinary people learned about microbes and responded to bacteriological medicine. Many Algerians feared invisible spirits (jinn) and sought the healing powers of saints and exorcists. Was it then permitted to use French treatments and follow rules of Pasteurian hygiene? Specialists in Islamic law, other intellectuals, and unlettered villagers showed a persistent concern with these and other questions in the wake of colonial conquest and violence, as novel techniques, therapeutics, and forms of epistemic authority were introduced, and new visions of religious orthodoxy and national revival were formulated. Examining material culture and writings across a range of genres and formats, Dr. Clark argues that Islamic tradition and law were integral to the emerging science and culture of microbes in 20^th-century Algeria. While Islamic reformists sought to displace jinn theories, other Algerian intellectuals and colonial officials found it convenient to explain germs in terms of jinn. Both French and Muslim elites combined religious principles and hygiene to advance their competing projects of political and social control targeted at the Muslim family, thereby attempting to displace women’s jinn-based practices.

Dr Hannah-Louise Clark is lecturer in global economic and social history at the University of Glasgow. Her work investigates cross-cultural translations of knowledge and professional hierarchies, technology transfer, state governance, and epidemics in North Africa, c. 1800-present, with a current focus on Algeria. Clark pays particular attention to neglected archives and Arabic-language sources to document and analyse long-term local, regional, and trans-regional trends in health and social welfare. Her research has informed teaching on history of medicine within Algeria’s medical curriculum, and has been recognized and supported by awards and grants from the National Endowment of the Humanities “Constructing African Medical Heritage: Legacies of Empire and the Geopolitics of Culture, 1890–1990,” with Helen Tilley [PI] and Michael Afolayan, 2020-2023), The Leverhulme Trust, Princeton University Committee on Academic Programmes for Alumni, and the US Department of Education DDRA Fellowship and others. Clark also collaborated with cultural heritage professionals and students at the University of Glasgow to develop “global history hackathons” as a format for research incubation and teaching with archives and museum collections. She is currently working on a book manuscript on race, religion, and the Pasteurian public health worldview in early 20^th-century Algeria.

This episode is part of “Health and Humanities in the Maghrib,” a lecture series by the American Institute for Maghrib Studies (AIMS), organized by the Centre d'Études Maghrébines à Tunis (CEMAT) and the Centre d'Études Maghrébines en Algérie (CEMA), in close collaboration with the Tangier American Legation Institute for Moroccan Studies (TALIM). It was recorded on the 26th of October 2020 between Glasgow, Oran, Oxford, and Tunis. James McDougall, Professor of History at St. Anthony's College, University of Oxford, moderated the lecture and debate.

To see related slides, visit our web site: www.themaghribpodcast.org 

We thank our friend Ignacio Villalón for his guitar performance for the introduction and conclusion of this podcast. 

Realization and editing:  Hayet Lansari, Librarian, Outreach Coordinator, Content Curator (CEMA).

Memoirs, Memory, and the History of the Tunisian Left

Episode 103: Memoirs, Memory, and the History of the Tunisian Left

In this podcast, Dr.Idriss Jebari contemplates the outpouring of memory from the former leftists of the Perspectives movement, following the 2011 Tunisian Revolution. In a series of published memoirs, the likes of Gilbert Naccache, Fethi Ben Haj Yahia and others take their readers from their experience of prison in the sixties and seventies, as well as their reflections on critical moments of Tunisia's political transition, particularly transitional justice and national reconciliation. Through these memoirs, Dr. Jebari explores how they could help write new histories for the Tunisian people: one that is plural and democratic. On the ten-year anniversary of the Revolution, after unprecedented transformations and the global pandemic, we are reminded of the fleeting nature of memory in light of the tragic passing of several figures from the Maghrib's past. 

Dr. Idriss Jebari is Al Maktoum Assistant Professor in Middle East Studies at Trinity CollegeDublin. His work investigates the distinctiveness of the Maghribi critique of modernity in contemporary Arab intellectual and cultural history. He completed a doctorate on the history of the production of critical thought in Morocco and Tunisia at the University of Oxford on the intellectual projects of Moroccan thinker Abdallah Laroui and Tunisian thinker Hichem Djaït. He then held an Arab Council for Social Sciences postdoctoral fellowship at the American University of Beirut to study the dynamics of intellectual and cultural exchanges between the Maghrib and the Mashriq after 1967. He has published on the intellectual projects of several North African intellectual figures such as Abdelkebir Khatibi, Mohamed Abed al-Jabri and Malek Bennabi, and how the younger generations remember this intellectual heritage and the Arab Left. He is currently working on his first book manuscript that will address the critical societal debates that shaped North Africa's path today modernity in the sixties and seventies.

This podcast was recorded between Tunis and Dublin on January 8, 2021, by the Centre d'Études Maghrébines à Tunis (CEMAT) and the Centre d'Études Maghrébines en Algérie (CEMA) and is part of the special podcast series, "The Ten-Year Anniversary of Tunisia's Revolution (January 14, 2021)." The podcast was introduced by Dr. Robert P. Parks, CEMA Director.

We thank Yesser Jradi for his interpretation of "Narja3lk dima." A talented artist, Yesser is a painter, musician with interests in cinema and theatre.

Posted by Hayet Lansari, Librarian, Outreach Coordinator, Content Curator (CEMA).

Conversation with Lisa Anderson and Tarek Kahlaoui: Reflections on Tunisia's State Building History and Contemporary Democratization Experience

Episode 102: Conversation with Lisa Anderson and Tarek Kahlaoui: Reflections on Tunisia's State Building History and Contemporary Democratization Experience

In this discussion, Lisa Anderson and Tarek Kahlaoui reflect on Tunisia's post-independence state-building history and the country's contemporary democratization experience. The conversation draws listeners to the transformative moments that preceded the 2011 Revolution, which had subsequent pivotal effects. Reflecting on their own intellectual and professional engagement with Tunisia, the speakers underscore the shortcomings of minimalist and purely institutional academic approaches to the study and practice of democracy.

Prof. Anderson is the James T. Shotwell Professor Emirita of International Relations at Columbia University, former President of the American University in Cairo, the Dean Emerita of the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University, and author of The State and Social Transformation in Tunisia and Libya: 1830-1980 (Princeton University Press, 1986).

Associate Prof. Kahlaoui taught history and Islamic civilization at Rutgers University for a decade after completing his Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania in 2008. After serving as the general director of the Tunisian Institute of Strategic Studies, Tunisia's leading think tank tied to the Presidency of the Republic, he resumed teaching history of the Arab World at the South Mediterranean University in Tunis. He is author of a 2020 book on Ahmed Ben Salah, a powerful super-minister under Tunisia's first president, Habib Bourguiba.

This podcast recorded on January 6, 2021 between Tunis and New York, as a part of CEMA and CEMAT's "The Ten-Year Anniversary of Tunisia's Revolution (January 14, 2011)" lecture series. Organized by the Tunis Officeof Columbia Global Centers (CGC) with the Centre d'Études Maghrébines à Tunis (CEMAT) and the Centre d'Études Maghrébines en Algérie (CEMA), this podcast was moderated by Dr. Laryssa Chomiak, CEMAT Director, and introduced by Youssef Cherif, CGC Director. 

We thank Yesser Jradi for his interpretation of "Narja3lk dima." A talented artist, Yesser is a painter, musician with interests in cinema and theatre. 

Posted by Hayet Lansari, Librarian, Outreach Coordinator, Content Curator (CEMA).

"Willis from Tunis, 10 ans et toujours vivant!" - Entretien avec Nadia Khiari

Episode 101: "Willis from Tunis, 10 ans et toujours vivant!" - Entretien avec Nadia Khiari

Le chat Willis from Tunis est né jeudi le 13 janvier 2011 au moment où le président tunisien déchu, Ben Ali, prononçait un discours dans lequel il promettait, entre autres, la liberté d'expression. Cette chronique graphique était pour l'auteur un moyen de partager avec son entourage direct via les réseaux sociaux, son ressenti vis-à-vis de la situation politique que la Tunisie vivait. Sur un ton satirique, le matou commentait l'actualité politique au jour le jour et n'a pas cessé depuis.

Dans ce podcast, Dr. Meriem Guetat, Directrice-adjointe du Centre d'Études Maghrébines à Tunis (CEMAT), s’entretient avec Nadia Khiari sur son nouveau livre de dessins Willis from Tunis, 10 ans et toujours vivant !, paru récemment aux Éditions Elyzad. La conversation relate l'engagement de Nadia Khiari pour la liberté d'expression et les droits humains, la portée de son œuvre caricaturale et artistique ainsi que les développements du personnage Willis, ponctués par la révolution elle-même.

Nadia Khiari, enseignante en arts plastiques, peintre et dessinatrice, a publié plusieurs recueils de chroniques sur la révolution tunisienne. Elle publie ses dessins dans Siné Mensuel, Courrier International et est membre de Cartooning for Peace. Elle a reçu le Prix Honoré Daumier (2012), les insignes de Docteur Honoris Causa de l'Université de Liège (2013), le prix international de la satire politique (2014), le prix Couilles au cul (2016) ainsi que le Prix Sokol (2018).

Ce podcast a été enregistré le 5 janvier 2021 par le Centre d'Études Maghrébines à Tunis (CEMAT) dans le cadre de la série "Ten-Year Anniversary of Tunisia's Revolution (January 14, 2021)."

Nous remercions Yesser Jradi pour son interprétation de "Narja3lk dima.". Un artiste talentueux, Yesser est peintre et musicien, il s’intéresse aussi au cinéma et au théâtre.

Posté par: Hayet Lansari, Bibliothécaire / Chargée de la diffusion des activités scientifiques (CEMA).

Constitution-Making Processes During Democratization: Egypt and Tunisia after the 2010/11 Uprisings

Episode 100: Constitution-making Processes during Democratization: Egypt and Tunisia after the 2010/11 Uprisings

In this podcast, Dr. Tereza Jermanová, discusses the differences in the constitution-making processes and design in Tunisia and Egypt during their transitions. Dr. Jermanová looks at how constitution-making procedures are perceived as, on the one hand, constraints –that might restrict the ability of majority actors to debate and set the rules for how a constitution will be made; and on the other hand, as a space where regular social interactions between individuals coming from different political backgrounds can help them to shed some of the prejudices that they have of their opponents and to build interpersonal ties. 

Dr. Jermanová argues that the inclusive procedures enabled constitutional agreement to become a possibility in Tunisia, while the lack of inclusion in Egypt made such an outcome improbable. Both countries set off on different tracks towards – and away from – democracy not because they followed different constitution-making designs, but because of factors that shaped their adoption in the first place. 

Dr. Tereza Jermanová is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Middle Eastern Studies at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague where she lectures on Contemporary politics of the Middle East and North Africa. She earned her Ph.D. in Comparative Politics at the University of Warwick, Great Britain. She holds her MA in North African Politics from the University of Exeter, and before that studied politics at the Sciences Po in Paris and the Charles University in Prague. Her research focuses on Egypt, Tunisia, and processes of democratization and constitution-making.

This interview was led by CEMAT Associate Director, Dr. Meriem Guetat, and was recorded on February 7, 2020, at the Centre d'Études Maghrébines à Tunis (CEMAT), as part of the Conversations in Law and Society Series.

Posted by Hayet Lansari, Librarian, Outreach Coordinator, Content Curator (CEMA).

Oran, The Plague and COVID 19

Episode 99: Oran, The Plague and COVID 19

The French critical tradition has seen in Camus’ La peste (1947) an allegorical representation of German occupation, during the Second World War. He staged it in Oran, a coastal town in French Algeria, at the time, closed to the rest of the world because of a plague pandemic. The recent COVID-19 pandemic that flared up through the world sparked off reminiscences of the novel, which remains a master piece of French literature because of its most realistic description of social angst, which recalls paranoiac collective crisis, throwing crowds into panics, from the Middle Ages. Using two literary devices ‘Le pacte autobiographique’ (P. Lejeune) and the ‘Chronotope’ (M. Bakhtin) we propose another reading of this novel, away from the over trodden paths of studies of its human gallery of portraits, as institutionalized by a North/South (French) approach, which we consider as aesthetically valuable as legitimate for its cultural context.   

We proceed through a South/North (Algerian) approach, based on two main protagonists ‘Oran’ and ‘the plague’ as characters by reference to another allegorical representation by ‘preterition’ (present in absentia) of a missing human entity, the Algerian people. While Camus stigmatizes the terrible suffering of the French people under the clamps of  the German invader, he excludes the indigenous ‘Arab community’ from the setting of La peste, keeping silent on the painful ordeal of the Algerian people, under the clamps of 132 years of colonization. Camus’ ambivalent posture induced very controversial debates over the ‘genuineness’ of his commitment to the Algerian cause. Yet, today, Camus has become more than a symbolic trade mark that two different cultural-makings of history dispute, whereas he has always dedicated his life and writings to the whole of mankind. 

Professor Sidi Mohamed Lakhdar Barka has been teaching ‘African non-native English and French writers’ literatures and African/American literatures of the first half of the twentieth century’, at the Department of English, Faculty of Foreign Languages, Mohamed Ben Ahmed University of Oran 2, since 1972. He produced several articles applying discourse analysis theories in the didactics of teaching literature to students coming from an oral tradition background, in Algeria. His pedagogical experience brought him to question the paradoxes of transmission of cultures through languages with a literary tradition (Arabic, French and English) to Algerian learners whose oral cultures have always been conveyed by local linguistic varieties of spoken Tamazight and Arabic, excluded from their literary syllabi.

This episode is part of “Arts and Letters in the Maghrib” lecture series and was recorded on the 26th of October 2020 at the Centre d'Études Maghrébines en Algérie (CEMA)

We thank our friend Ignacio Villalón, Master candidate at EHESS, for his guitar performance for the introduction and conclusion of this podcast. 

Realization and editing:  Hayet Lansari, Librarian, Outreach Coordinator, Content Curator (CEMA).

En hommage à feu Pr. Abdelkader Lakjaa

Episode 98: En hommage à feu Pr. Abdelkader Lakjaa 

La méthode n'enfante pas d'idées par elle-même

En hommage à feu Pr. Abdelkader Lakjaa, Sociologue à l'Université d'Oran 2, qui nous a quittés le 7 novembre 2020, nous vous proposons de réécouter sa communication intitulée "La méthode n'enfante pas d'idées par elle-même", programmée dans le cadre de la rencontre autour de l'ouvrage collectif La scientificité de l'empirisme en sociologie, coordonné par Pr. Abdel-Halim Berretima, Sociologue à l’Université de Bejaïa, laquelle rencontre a eu lieu au Centre d'Études Maghrébines en Algérie (CEMA), le 20 février 2020.

 

Nos sincères condoléances à sa familles, à ses ami(e)s, et à la communauté universitaire.

 

Pour écouter le podcast de la rencontre dans son intégralité, veuillez consulter l'épisode 88.

 

Nous remercions Dr. Jonathan Glasser, anthropologue culturel au College of William & Mary, pour son istikhbar in sika à l'alto pour l'introduction et la conclusion de ce podcast.

Réalisation et montage: Hayet Lansari, Bibliothécaire / Chargée de la diffusion des activités scientifiques (CEMA). 

 

Maghrébins en Méditerranée: Complicités corsaires maghrébines à l'époque moderne entre Méditerranée et Atlantique

Episode 97: Maghrébins en Méditerranée:

Complicités corsaires maghrébines à l'époque moderne entre Méditerranée et Atlantique

 

La journée d’étude « Maghrébins en Méditerranée » s’inscrit dans le prolongement du workshop « La Méditerranée vue d’Afrique du Nord » organisé par l’Institut Américain d’Études Maghrébines en juillet 2019 à Tunis.  Cette journée d’études, coordonnée par Pr. Fatima Zohra Guechi, se penche sur la présence et les rôles des Maghrébins en Méditerranée entre le 16^ème et 19^ème siècles. La course et la piraterie figurent parmi les faits historiques ayant marqué cette période. Les Chrétiens les associent à une guerre sainte, les musulmans au jihad. 

 

Les communications présentées dans le cadre de cette journée examinent dans un premier temps les enjeux économiques et diplomatiques de la course en mettant l’accent sur les complicités corsaires maghrébines entre la Méditerranée et l’Atlantique, et les parcours familiaux des commerçants évoluant entre Alger, Livourne et Marseille. 

 

Elles interrogent dans un second temps les circuits d’échange et les trajectoires des corsaires et négociants méditerranéens en interrogeant le cas de la course maritime de la Régence d’Alger entre l’Europe et la Sublime porte.

 

    فاطمة الزهراء قشي، أستاذة التاريخ الحديث والمعاصر، جامعة عبد الحميد مهري قسنيطنة 2 ,مديرة مخبر تاريخ تراث ومجتمع 2012-2018 (سابقا), عضو في المجالس العلمية للكلية ( سابقا), رئيسة فريق التكوين لماستر ودكتوراه "المغرب الحديث: تاريخ  وحضارة" (2011- 2018), رئيسة تحرير مجلة العلوم الإنسانية والاجتماعية- جامعة عبد الحميد مهري- قسنطينة 2 ,عضو محكم في مجلة إنسانيات ومجلة أسطور، وغيرهما.

    من بين منشوراتها: 

        

        - المؤسسات والحراك الاجتماعي والسياسي في الجزائر و تونس (18 و19م)، كتاب جماعي تحت إشراف فاطمة الزهراء قشي،  منشورات مخبر تاريخ، تراث ومجتمع- دار بهاء الدين للنشر والتوزيع، قسنطينة، 2018.

       - " السلطة العثمانية و الزعامات القبلية والحضرية  في إيالة الجزائر (16 -19م) "، العرب: من مرج دابق إلى سايكس- بيكو(1516- 1916)- تحولات بنى السلطة والمجتمع: من الكيانات والإمارات السلطانية إلى الكيانات الوطنية،المركز العربي لأبحاث ودراسة السياسات، بيروت، 2019، صص. ؟ 

 

- 2013. La presse algérienne de langue arabe  1946-1954, enjeux politiques et jeux de plumes‪. (2d édition), Midad University Press.

- (dir). 2004. Constantine, une ville‪,‬ des héritages. Constantine : Media-Plus. 2^e édition en 2010.

- Compte rendu de l’ouvrage  de Gilbert Meynier : L’Algérie et la France, Deux siècles d’histoire croisée, (iReMMO, L’Harmattan. 2017. Khalfoune, T. (Dir.), 2019. Mélanges en l’honneur de l’historien Gilbert Meynier. Paris :L’Harmattan, 2019, pp. 47-63.

 

Dans ce podcast, Leila Maziane professeure d’histoire moderne à   l’Université Hassan II Casablanca et membre du Réseau International de « La Gouvernance des Ports Atlantiques (XIVe XXI^e siècles) » présente une communication portant sur les complicités corsaires maghrébines à l’époque moderne entre Méditerranée et Atlantique.

 

A cette époque, Salé et Tétouan deviennent les ports corsaires les plus importants du littoral marocain et les plus florissants du Maghreb. Leurs corsaires sont partout et rabattent vers leurs ports d’attache captifs et marchandises. Leur réussite s'explique en partie par une entente de grande envergure qui s’est tissée entre les corsaires du Maghreb, ceux de Tunis, Tripoli et surtout d’Alger qui se sont alliés avec zèle depuis le XVIe siècle à l'entreprise corsaire marocaine.

 

Elle a donc tenté de comprendre comment ces différentes places portuaires maghrébines ont su tirer le meilleur profit de la densité de leur réseau et de leur connexion pour devenir des foyers corsaires prospères du Maghreb à l'époque moderne. Et ce, malgré la contrainte des expéditions navales punitives des puissances européennes et des accords diplomatiques signés avec elles.

 

Leïla Maziane vient de publier l’Oriental et la Méditerranée, au-delà des frontières, Casablanca, Croisée des Chemins, 2019. Outre l’histoire et le patrimoine maritime et portuaire, ses thèmes de recherche sont les mobilités. Récemment, elle a coordonné avec Khalid Bensrhir, le dernier numéro de la Revue Hespéris-Tamuda, dédié à la Mobilité individuelle et collective en Méditerranée et en Méditerranée Atlantique : bilan et perspectives, LIII, 3, 2018. Elle a participé à plusieurs ouvrages collectifs tel que Cautivas y esclavas: el tráfico humano en el Mediterráneo, Granada, Editorial Universidad de Granada, 2016 ; La Gobernanza de los Puertos Atlánticos. Siglos XIV-XX, Madrid, Collection de la Casa de Velázquez, n°. 155, 2016. 

 

Pour consulter les diaporamas associés à ce podcast, veuillez visiter notre site web: www.themaghribpodcast.com 

 

Podcasts similaires: 

صناعة البحر المتوسط في المتخيلة الاسلامية، تصور المسلمين لمنطقة البحر المتوسط من خلال تاريخ الخرائط من القرن العاشر للقرن السادس عشر

 

La Méditerranée aux yeux des géographes maghrébins au Moyen Âge

 

Nous remercions notre ami Mohammed Boukhoudmi pour son interpretation de l'extrait de nouba, "Dziriya," par Dr. Noureddine Saoudi pour l'introduction et la conclusion de ce podcast.

 

Réalisation et montage: Hayet Lansari, Bibliothécaire / Chargée de la diffusion des activités scientifiques (CEMA). 

Why is the "everywhere war" mostly in the Middle East and North Africa?

Episode 96: Why is the "everywhere war" mostly in the Middle East and North Africa?

In this podcast, Professor Jacob Mundy examines the historical and geographical definition and categorization of the MENA region through the discourse of the “everywhere war”, questioning the middle east as a permanent structure of conflict. In nowhere else in the world, war-particularly foreign intervention-is as prevalent and constant as in the MENA region. Professor Mundy argues that the creation of the MENA region as an identity component can be considered as a form of “violence”. He also traces the oil-security nexus, particularly the instability that it engenders across cases and time. 

Jacob Mundy is an Associate Professor at Colgate University in the Peace and Conflict Studies Program. He is the author of Imaginative Geographies of Algerian Violence: Conflict Science, Conflict Management, Antipolitics (Stanford University Press, 2015) and more recently Libya (Polity Press, 2018). During the 2018-19 academic year, Professor Mundy was a Fulbright Scholar with the Université de Tunis and a research affiliate with CEMAT. He has also twice served on the board of the American Institute for Maghrib Studies, and is also on the editorial committee of Middle East Report. His current research examines the political economy of Libya’s transition after 2011.

This episode is part of the Contemporary Thought series  and was recorded on September 12, 2019, at the Centre d'Études Maghrébines à Tunis, as part of “Reinforcing Critical Research on North Africa” project organized by CEMAT and CEMA and funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York. 

 

To see related slides visit our web page www.themaghribpodcast.com

Posted by Hayet Lansari, Librarian, Outreach Coordinator, Content Curator (CEMA).

Medieval Ifriqiya & the Emergence of the Hafsid Dynasty

Episode 95: Medieval Ifriqiya & the Emergence of the Hafsid Dynasty

In this podcast, Samantha Cloud, PhD candidate in the Department of History at Saint Louis University,  discusses her work on medieval Ifriqiya and the emergence of the Hafsid dynasty. The Hafsid dynasty ruled Medieval Ifriqiya (roughly the territory of modern-day Tunisia, Eastern Algeria, and parts of Libya) from the 13^th through the 16^th century. The self-proclaimed inheritors of the Almohad empire, the Hafsids were the first rulers of Berber-descent to reign over the newly independent kingdom of Tunis, wholly untethered from foreign domination. The success of the Hafsids owed largely to the prowess of its first two sovereigns, Abu Zakariya Yahya and Abu ‘Abd Allah Muhammad al-Mustansir, whom possessed respectively a keen understanding of Maghrebi tribal politics and the politics of prestige. 

This podcast provides an overview of the history of medieval Ifriqiya to highlight the significance of this dynasty in a region whose past is haunted by foreign rule and occupation. Addressing the impact of colonialism in the region’s history and historiography, it seeks to reframe the history of the Maghrib from its peripheral position in Western and Islamic studies to a central focus. Also, in focus is the historical agency of Berber peoples – or rather the Amazigh – with the medieval period especially and Hafsid dynasty in particular providing great example of this.    

Samantha Cloud is writing a dissertation on “A Mediterranean King in the Age of Crusade: Interreligious Diplomacy between Charles of Anjou and Mohamed Al-Mustansir of Tunis.”

This podcast is part of the «History of the Maghrib, History in the Maghrib» series and was recorded on November 18, 2019, at the Centre d'Études Maghrébines à Tunis (CEMAT).

Posted by Hayet Lansari, Librarian, Outreach Coordinator, Content Curator (CEMA).