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Joint MA CMEPS

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Joint MA CMEPS

Joint M.A. Comparative & Middle East Politics and Society
2-year Graduate Program 👩🏽‍🎓👨🏼‍🎓
💐 University of Tübingen & American University in Cairo 🌴

The CMEPS program seeks to educate experts in the field of Political Science, in particular in Comparative Politics, with a regional focus on the Middle East and North Africa. The program focuses on the relationship between societies and states in the MENA region, the relationship between both, as well as the dynamics of social and political transformation. Students are provided with a broad conceptual, theoretical, and methodological basis for dealing with issues from different fields, including:

- International Political Economy
- Development Politics and International Cooperation
- Regime Change and Democratization
- Peace and Conflict Resolution
- Issues in the Cultures and Civil Societies of the Middle East.
- as well as electives of your choice! Students may specialize in one of these fields, and their MA thesis allows them to gain further in-depth knowledge within their focus. Students will spend one semester at the respected partner university.

11/10/2026

🎓 Are you interested in getting involved beyond your studies and meeting new people in Tübingen by volunteering for a common cause?✨

🤝 There are numerous student groups and initiatives at our university that you can join during your time here!

💬 In this post, we have asked some student groups and initiatives whose main topics might be of interest to CMEPS students to introduce themselves. These include the Student Association of Political Science (“Fachschaft”), the Amnesty International Student Group Tübingen, the UNICEF Student Group Tübingen, as well as the BSH Tübingen (Student Group for Foreign and Security Policy). All welcome new members and would be happy for you to get in touch with them via the channels mentioned on each slide.

🔎 However, these are only some examples, and there are many more groups and initiatives for you to discover! The university offers a comprehensive list of student groups sorted by category on its website:
https://uni-tuebingen.de/en/studium/rund-ums-studium/studentisches-engagement/gruppen-und-initiativen/

📅📢 If you’d like to get to know some of the groups on the list in person, a freshers’ fair, the so-called “Markt der Möglichkeiten“, will take place on Thursday, October 15, starting from 6 pm at Hörsaalzentrum Morgenstelle. At this fair, many groups will have information stands for interested students and answer questions from potential newcomers.

04/10/2026

🌟 CMEPS recommends: ”In a Whisper“ (”À voix basse“), a film by Leyla Bouzid 🎬🇹🇳

Inspired by the occasion of the Arab Film Festival (Arab Film Festival Stuttgart | Tübingen ) taking place in Stuttgart and Tübingen from October 2nd to October 10th, 2026, a current CMEPS student in Tübingen is recommending 🎞️ “In a Whisper“ (”À voix basse“), the third feature-length film by Tunisian filmmaker Leyla Bouzid 🎞️

🎬 It follows Lilia, a young engineer who returns from France to her home country of Tunisia to attend her uncle’s funeral. Soon, she realizes that he did not die a natural death. As she tries to uncover the circumstances of his death, Lilia slowly has to engage more with her uncle’s homosexuality, which had been an open secret within her family. Lilia herself lives in Paris with her French girlfriend Alice, whom her family does not know about. When Alice accompanies Lilia to the funeral in Sousse, her uncle’s mysterious death therefore also confronts her with the need to navigate her own q***r identity within societal and familial expectations.

📽️ The movie effectively captures the dynamics between different generations, as well as within a society where homosexuality still cannot be openly lived. While Lilia’s investigation opens up the clandestine nature and suppression of homosexuality within the Tunisian state system, the movie’s depiction of the familial and intimate aspects are particularly striking. The film follows the slow development of the relationship between Lilia and her mother, as they try to find their way towards each other while dealing with the tension surrounding the uncle’s secret identity and the daughter’s own q***rness. Trying to understand more about her uncle’s death and finding a voice for it therefore also becomes part of Lilia’s personal quest to find a voice for herself and her own identity.

💭 As already hinted at in the title, “In a Whisper“ leaves room for the unspoken. Through restraint and silence, the film gently explores the difficulty of expressing one’s identity within social and political contexts that shape, and sometimes limit, what can be spoken.

27/09/2026

Meet Dr. Nesrine Badawi, Associate Professor of Public and International Law at The American University in Cairo (AUC).

Having served as the CMEPS Program Director in Cairo, Dr. Badawi has played an invaluable role in guiding CMEPS students and fostering joint academic exchange between AUC and the University of Tübingen. ✨

17/09/2026

🌟 CMEPS recommends: “Human Acts” by Han Kang 📖🕊️

This month, our PhD candidate Ronja Herrschner is recommending 📚 “Human Acts” by Han Kang 📚

✍️ Han Kang was awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature for her intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life.

🕯️ “Human Acts” unfolds the horrors of the 1980 Gwangju Massacre by focusing on the fate of a young boy named D**g Ho. It starts off by introducing D**g Ho as a character through a first-person account following him even into death. Like concentric circles, each following chapter then zooms in on those close to him or connected to him through the events of the massacre, tracing how they have been affected and dealt with the trauma in subsequent years.

🕊️ “Human Acts” always feels very close and intimate. Through D**g Ho as a mediator, this book showcases one yet many stories and fates at the same time. Han Kang is incredibly skillful at masterfully narrating time, weaving and interconnecting the atrocities of the past with the scars they have left in the present. She shows what people are willing to risk for freedom, and how authoritarian governments stifle this spirit. Yet, the impact of those struggles persists, holding a quiet, enduring power.

✨ At its core, however, following its title, the book asks what it means to be human, whether we lose our humanity through death, through the perpetration of crimes, or in the eyes of a system that aims to control memory and remembrance.

Even though this touches upon modern Korean history rather than the Middle East, read through the lens of comparative politics and transitional justice, it offers profound insights into state violence, authoritarianism, and collective memory that resonate deeply with anyone studying comparative political dynamics and resistance. 📖

08/09/2026

⚡️ Alumni in Action ⚡️

🇩🇪 Meet recent graduate and CMEPS alumna Marcia Isabel Ponzlet, who completed her internship with GIZ in the Working Group on Peace and Development (Working Group on Peace and Development (FriEnt) ) in Bonn! 🕊️

❓ What was your role?

🙋 During my internship with GIZ in the Working Group on Peace and Development (FriEnt) in Bonn, I mainly supported their communications work by creating and preparing content for their social media accounts, website, and other platforms 📱. I also worked with their ‘Feminist Peacebuilding’ focus team on issues of Youth, Peace, and Security (YPS) 🕊️ and, for example, co-moderated an online event with Cameroonian YPS expert and activist Achaleke Christian Leke. Much of my time was dedicated to preparing the biennial FriEnt Peacebuilding Forum 🏛️. Together with my ‘Feminist Peacebuilding ’ colleagues, I planned a breakout session for the event and conducted background discussions with possible speakers.

❓ What was the best part of the internship?

🙋 The highlight of my internship was preparing, filming, and editing an interview at the June Climate Meetings (SB64) with Mrinal Kanti Tripura, the director of the Maleya Foundation from Bangladesh 🎬. From the first draft to meeting Mrinal (who was so kind and a great interviewee!), adapting to weather changes the day of, and then seeing the final product perform well on FriEnt’s social media accounts, it was just a great experience. Generally, I really enjoyed the creativity of my daily work and getting to meet so many hard working and inspiring people from all over the world. ✨

❓ How did this internship shape your professional interests and strengthen your academic & practical skills?

🙋 I got lucky with my team, they were trusting and encouraging early on, allowing me to take on responsibility, solve issues creatively, and strengthening my ability to trust my knowledge and skills 🤝. As part of a Working Group, made up of state, civil society, and faith based actors, I gained valuable insights into their collaboration and the strengths of each type of actor 🔍. Further, working in international cooperation and peacebuilding at a time when most funding is dedicated to security and defen

19/08/2026

🏛️ What do CMEPS students learn in class? 📚💻

This month, we are giving you a special peek into one of the core seminars taught by Dr. Mirjam Edel, Comparative Politics of the Middle East and North Africa! 🕵️‍♂️✨

This seminar provides an advanced survey of politics across the MENA region!

Throughout the semester, students explore essential themes including:

🔹 Sources of Legitimacy & Authoritarian Durability
🔹 Electoral and Party Politics
🔹 Civil Society & Contentious Politics
🔹 Repression, Political Economy & Distributive Politics
🔹 Sectarian Politics, Nationalism & Regional Order… and much more! 📑🏛️

Swipe through to see what we deal with each week! 🎓✨

15/07/2026

📢 WE ARE HIRING: CMEPS Student Assistant (HiWi)

📝 Dr. Mirjam Edel is seeking a student assistant (20 hours/month) to support her work in CMEPS Master’s program!

📬 How to apply:
Send your application to [email protected].

⏰ Deadline: July 22, 2026

02/07/2026

🌟 CMEPS Recommends: ”The World Cup and the Politics of Football in the MENA Region“ by Dr. André Bank, Dr. Idriss Jebari, Hamid Talebian, and Prof. Dr. Eckart Woertz. 📖⚽

Following last Wednesday’s talk by Dr. André Bank (German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA) ) on “Syria after Assad: Political transition under the aegis of Salafi rebels,” this month our Program Coordinator Dr. Mirjam Edel recommends the latest GIGA Focus publication 📚 co-authored by Dr. André Bank, Dr. Idriss Jebari, Hamid Talebian, and Prof. Dr. Eckart Woertz. 📖✨

⚽ How’s everyone‘s World Cup going? The group stage just wrapped up and we now know who made it to the round of 32. From the MENA region, Morocco, Egypt, and Algeria are all through!

🌍 This GIGA Focus digs into Politics of Football. The authors look at three things running through MENA football politics: nationalism (governments leaning on the ”national team“ for legitimacy), sportswashing (Gulf states pouring money into stadiums, clubs, and star signings to build soft power abroad), and protest (the backlash when these mega-projects come at a real cost to ordinary people, Morocco’s Gen Z protests over stadium spending, or Tunisia‘s ultras scene).

💭 The best part of this piece is how it connects football directly to politics. Iran’s Team Melli caught up in wartime nationalism, Jordan‘s monarchy riding its first World Cup qualification, Algeria and Morocco’s rivalry turning into actual diplomatic tension.

If you‘re into football or Middle East politics (or both), give this one a read. 📖 ⚽

On 10 June 2026, Dr. André Bank visited the Institut für Politikwissenschaft (IfP) to give an lecture titled ‚Syria after Assad: Political transition under the aegis of Salafi rebels!

22/06/2026

🌟 Wednesday, July 1st, 2026, 16:00 c.t. CET 🌟

Please join us for a talk by Dr. Irene Weipert-Fenner from PRIF on “Green Hydrogen Economies in North Africa: Towards a Comprehensive Peace and Conflict Analysis.” 🌿💧

Against the backdrop of the Green Deal and the energy crisis triggered by Russia’s war in Ukraine, the EU 🇪🇺has accelerated an ambitious transition toward renewable energy, including the import of green hydrogen from North Africa. While often framed as a win-win situation, civil society actors and scholars criticize these developments as ”green extractivism“ and ”green colonialism.“

Using 🇹🇳 Tunisia as a case study, Dr. Weipert-Fenner will propose a comprehensive, multilevel analysis to examine how green hydrogen economies interact with and reshape pre-existing political-economic conflicts, helping to develop more socially just, inclusive, and peaceful strategies for climate action.

💻 Join us in Room 124, IfP or via Zoom 💻
Meeting ID: 930 8975 0663
Passcode: 142311

13/06/2026

Summer Bucket List in Tübingen ☀️

Here is another bucket list from CMEPS HiWis to help you make the most of the sunny season while studying at Universität Tübingen ! 🌿✨

🌿 Enjoy the weather in the Botanical Garden. Take a peaceful stroll through the Botanischer Garten der Universität Tübingen . It’s the perfect spot to clear your mind in exam period, or simply enjoy the beautiful summer blooms!

🏊 Go to the outdoor pool. Beat the summer heat by heading to the Freibad! 🌀Whether you want to swim, slide down the water slides, or just sunbathe on the grass with friends, it’s one of the best summer hangout spot. Stadtwerke Tübingen

🚣 Take a Stocherkahn tour. Grab some snacks, jump on a punting boat, and enjoy the stunning views along the Neckar river.

🎸 Visit the RACT! Festival (until 13 June, today!) Experience the vibrant student culture at one of Tübingen‘s biggest highlights! Enjoy free live music, great food, and amazing festival vibes Ract!festival

Adresse

Tübingen

Website

http://www.cmeps.eu/

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