MECAM - Merian Centre for Advanced Studies in the Maghreb

17/08/2026

🟤We are pleased to share a new post on the TRAFO Blog for Forum Transregionale Studien as part of MECAM’s series Imagining Futures – Dealing with Disparity.

📖 Representing ‘Sub-Saharan’ Boat Migrants: Global and Tunisian Media Narratives of the Mediterranean Migration ‘Crisis’ by Imene Gannouni Khemiri

Imene Gannouni Khemiri examines how media narratives frame the Mediterranean migration “crisis,” contrasting dominant representations of migrants as numbers and threats with more humanitarian approaches that foreground their experiences and the politics of border control.

➡ Read it here: https://trafo.hypotheses.org/66607

📌 For more information, check out the MECAM Blog Series: https://mecam.tn/mecam-f/?lang=en

By Imene Gannouni Khemiri. The escalating ‘irregular’ migration across the Mediterranean Sea has become a major topic of international interest. While it is not a new phenomenon, the number of ‘sub-Saharan’ migrants, along with the associated death toll, has recently reached unprecedented le...

11/08/2026

🟤We are thrilled to share a new publication by Massensen Cherbi, MECAM long-term fellow, titled "Ferhat Abbas’s draft of Algeria’s 1963 Constitution: visions of a Muslim democrat", published in The Journal of North African Studies.

The article examines Ferhat Abbas’s 1963 constitutional project for independent Algeria: a democratic parliamentary system based on the separation of powers, the rule of law, individual rights, judicial independence, religious tolerance, bilingualism, gender equality, and moderate humanist socialism.

📚 Read it here: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13629387.2025.2492108

Ferhat Abbas’s draft of the Algerian Constitution (April 1963) has long remained unknown. The document sheds light on the personality of Abbas, who was one of the pillars of the Algerian national m...

20/07/2026

🟤 MECAM summer break 20.07.26 - 07.08.26 🟤

The MECAM centre will be closed during its summer break from 20.07.26 - 07.08.26 and welcomes you back on the 10.08.26! In the meantime, you can reach us through [email protected] and we will respond as soon as possible.

Best regards, the MECAM Team

16/07/2026

📣New MECAM Newsletter is out!

📌 Catch up on everything from January to May 2026 — from our Traveling Academy in Gabès to Event Week in Tunis, new MECAM Papers, and fellow publications.
Plus, a first look at what's coming this September !

📌Read the full newsletter here:https://mecam.tn/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Newsletter-MECAM-Janaury-to-April-2026.pdf

👉https://mecam.tn/newsletter/?lang=en

15/07/2026

📣 Conférence sur l'héritage culturel immatériel tunisien

📍 Faten Bouchrara, coordinatrice des boursiers du MECAM et collaboratrice au bureau de liaison de Philipps-Universität Marburg en Tunisie, a participé au séminaire estival de la Halqa Arabiyya, organisé au sein du CNMS Centrum für Nah- und Mittelost-Studien Marburg, le 30 juin 2026.
Cette participation s'inscrit dans le cadre de la mobilité Erasmus+ Staff qu'elle a effectuée à l'Université Philipps de Marburg du 25 juin au 1er juillet 2026.
📍 À cette occasion, Faten Bouchrara a présenté ses travaux de recherche doctorale consacrés à la mémoire et à la patrimonialisation d'un héritage culturel immatériel tunisien. Le séminaire a également accueilli une conférence du professeur visiteur Magdi Guirguis, consacrée à des documents du XIXᵉ siècle relatifs au statut personnel au sein de l'Église copte en Égypte.
Les deux présentations ont été suivies d'un échange scientifique riche et stimulant, mettant en lumière l'importance du dialogue académique entre chercheurs de différentes disciplines, institutions et pays.
📍 Cette rencontre s'est déroulée en présence des professeurs Albrecht Fuess, Nessim Znaien, Assem Fehmy et Christian Junge, ainsi que de nombreux étudiants et chercheurs. Elle a constitué un espace privilégié de partage des connaissances et de renforcement des collaborations scientifiques internationales.
📌 Plus d'informations sur Al Halqa Al Arabiyya et sur la dernière session de l'année académique.
➡️https://www.uni-marburg.de/en/cnms/halqa-arabiyya

06/07/2026

📢📸 Recap: MECAM's Second Publication Workshop

📢From 17 to 19 June, MECAM's Second Publication Workshop welcomed the next generation of authors, reviewers, and editors at the German Institute for Global and Area Studies - GIGA in Hamburg, one of MECAM's consortium partners.

📍Over three days, the participants gained practical insights into drafting and publishing academic articles and books, including the MECAM publication formats, while also working on their own texts in daily writing and feedback sessions.

📍A highlight was Thursday's roundtable on diversifying publication languages and bridging academic traditions, bringing together cross-regional perspectives from MECAM and editors from the GIGA journal family.

📍After three inspiring workshop days organised by MECAM's Publication manager Maria Josua, we would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to all contributors and participants!

➡️Learn more about the programme here:
https://mecam.tn/mecam-publication-workshop/?lang=en
📷: GIGA/Nischal Joshi

06/07/2026

📢 Call for Contributions – Thematic Focus on Technology, Conflict and Coloniality– Apply by September 15, 2026

The research network “Postcolonial Hierarchies in Peace and Conflict Studies”, MECAM, and the Forum Transregionale Studien invite contributions to the Virtual Encyclopedia on Peace and Conflict Studies and the TRAFO -Blog for Transregional Research with a thematic focus on technology, conflict, and coloniality.

Contributions may be submitted in a variety of formats, including text, video, audio, images, illustrations, empirical examples, vignettes, music, interviews, and storytelling.

🔗 More info on MECAM website: https://mecam.tn/call-for-contributions-thematic-focus-on-technology-conflict-and-coloniality/?lang=en



Applications must be submitted through the online form.

👉 Registration form: https://rewritingpeaceandconflict.net/call-mecam-trafo/
📧 Deadline: September 15, 2026

Tag someone who might be interested!

Thematic focus: Technology, conflict and coloniality Photo by Georges Khalil, 2022, Tunis The research network “Postcolonial Hierarchies in Peace and Conflict Studies“, the Merian Center for Advanced Studies in the Maghreb (MECAM) and the Forum Transregionale Studien open the call for contributi...

06/07/2026

📢Recap: MECAM Policy Talk 2026 on Mediterranean relations

At the end of June, experts and policymakers gathered in Berlin for two days of lively discussions on Mediterranean (geo)politics and cooperation. A highlight was the MECAM Policy Talk on 25 June 2026 on "The Future of Mediterranean Relations: German and Maghrebi Perspectives on the New Pact for the Mediterranean."

Four speakers explored key dimensions of the Pact from complementary perspectives:
🟤 Salma Badda (Mediterranean Youth Council ).
🟤 Eckart Woertz (German Institute for Global and Area Studies - GIGA ) on energy and economic cooperation.
🟤 Imene Gannouni Khemiri (Faculté des lettres, des arts et des humanités de la Manouba) on migration and mobility.
🟤 Rachid Ouaissa (Philipps-Universität Marburg/MECAM) on lessons from decades of Mediterranean policymaking (Centrum für Nah- und Mittelost-Studien Marburg).

Held at the State Representation of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg in Berlin, the event also benefited from valuable contributions by a representative of the German Federal Foreign Office, who shared insights from a diplomatic perspective.

We look back on two inspiring days of exchange, collaboration, and new ideas and would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to our speakers, partners, and everyone who joined us - we look forward to continuing the conversation!

🔗 More information on MECAM website: https://mecam.tn/rencontres-ibn-khaldun-policy-talks/?lang=en

02/07/2026

📢We are thrilled to share a new publication by Muriam Haleh Davis, MECAM fellow 2025, titled "Humor and power in Algeria, 1920 to 2021", published in The Journal of North African Studies.

Muriam Haleh Davis discusses Elizabeth Perego’s Humor and Power in Algeria, 1920–2021, a study of how humor has shaped politics and identity in Algeria from the colonial period to the Hirak protests, and how it can both challenge and reinforce dominant political narratives.

📚 Read it here: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13629387.2025.2467066
https://mecam.tn/mecam-publikationen/?lang=de

Published in The Journal of North African Studies (Vol. 30, No. 4, 2025)

17/06/2026

📣 MECAM Fellow Massensen Cherbi is presenting at the colloque international “Islamophobie(s). Perspectives maghrébines”, organized by the Institut de Recherche sur le Maghreb Contemporain (IRMC) and the Faculté des sciences juridiques, politiques et sociales de Tunis (Université de Carthage) (FSJPST).

📍19.06.26, 11:00-12:00 at Faculté des sciences juridiques, politiques et sociales de Tunis (Université de Carthage), Salle Dali Jazi (salle 17)

🎤 Massensen Cherbi will present “Islamophobie et délit de blasphème en contexte majoritairement musulman : des notions interchangeables ? Étude sur la transposabilité du concept d’islamophobie en contexte algérien”.

🔗 More info: https://irmcmaghreb.org/colloque-international-islamophobies-perspectives-maghrebines-2/