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Category: Conversations

Conversations are written or recorded interchanges on common questions by two or more participants who know each other’s work, but may not share the same position, disciplinary or regional perspective. For more information see Contributions.

Cover of the book "Unter deutscher Besatzung".

Occupation was a Poison Effective within European Societies – An Interview with Tatjana Tönsmeyer on Everyday Life under German Occupation in WWII

Tatjana Tönsmeyer is a Professor of Modern and Contemporary History at the University of Wuppertal. She is one of the most prominent scholars on the history of the Second World War and of occupation in Europe during that period. She also works on the history of memory and the post-history of National Socialism, as well as on questions concerning statehood, supply, and security. She is particularly committed to developing an integrated history of Western and Eastern Europe in their transatlantic relations.

Part of the book cover.

Dust That Never Settles: Literary Afterlives of the Iran-Iraq War – A Conversation with Amir Moosavi

Amir Moosavi in conversation with Anne-Marie McManus. In his book “Dust That Never Settles: Literary Afterlives of the Iran-Iraq War”, Moosavi explores the massive literary output of the Iran-Iraq War, choosing a comparative approach: In contrasting Iranian and Iraqi writers, it shows the common experiences of war and writing under authoritarian regimes as well as the writers’ various entanglements with this war that overlapped and diverged over time.

The Hour of Absinthe: A Cultural History of France’s Most Notorious Drink – A Conversation with Nina Studer

Diana Abbani in Conversation with Nina Studer. In her book “The Hour of Absinthe: A Cultural History of France’s Most Notorious Drink”, Studer explores the history of absinthe through the lenses of cultural, social, and colonial history. She uses absinthe as a lens which allows to look at racial inequalities, gender inequalities, class inequalities and more. She is led by the question how a consumption shared between various groups – men, women and children, bourgeoisie, artists and working classes, colonizers and colonized – could be viewed and interpreted as having vastly different consequences, depending on both a person’s belonging to one of these groups and to behaviors associated to these groups.

Reclaiming Movement: Hayet Amamou on the Maghreb’s Mobile Past and Future

Hayet Amamou in Conversation with Julius Dihstelhoff. Prof. Amamou argues that precolonial patterns of mobility—not rigid territoriality—forged the Maghreb’s identity. Her work challenges modern narratives of exclusion, insisting that historical connectivity, not isolation, holds the key to reimagining the region’s future. Amamou’s work aligns with MECAM’s mission to “imagine futures” by confronting historical erasures. Her keynote underscored that the Maghreb’s precolonial mobility was “a negotiated order, not chaos”—one that offers alternatives to today’s exclusionary policies.

‘Isn’t Everything an Afterlife?’

Yasmine Kherfi and Sigrid Corry in Conversation with Dr Atef Said on Ethnographic Methods, Temporality and History. What does it mean to write, witness, and take part in history in the making? Yasmine Kherfi and Sigrid Corry speak to Dr Atef Said, Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Illinois, to explore questions of methodology, as well as its personal, scholarly and political implications. His book, Revolution Squared: Tahrir, Political Possibilities, and Counterrevolution in Egypt (Duke University Press, 2024), traces the story of the Egyptian revolution of 2011, documenting the spaces and histories through which it unfolded. Through ethnographic fieldwork in Tahrir Square, its surrounding streets and digital platforms, Said examines the dynamic character of revolution—one that is both indeterminate and shaped by historical contingencies.

Not Lost in Translation: Textbook Exploring Arabic Studies in 21st-century Germany

Clara-Auguste Süß in Conversation with Anis Ben Amor and Christian Junge. On 19 November 2024, MECAM hosted a Rencontre Ibn Khaldun in Arabic, an event format designed to share research findings with the wider public and foster open, inclusive debate. The event was organized in cooperation with the Arab-German Young Academy of Sciences and Humanities (AGYA). Dr. Christian Junge and Dr. Anis Ben Amor led a discussion on Arabic Studies in 21st-century Germany. They presented their collaborative translation project of the German-language textbook “Arabistik. Eine literatur- und kulturwissenschaftliche Einführung” (English: Arabic Studies: An Introduction to Literary and Cultural Studies”) and highlighted approaches, methodologies and challenges in the field.

The Genesis of the Modern European State between Bourdieu and Weber: A Methodological Perspective

Reflecting on his methodological approach to researching Hamas and Ennahda during his recent fellowship with MECAM, Palestinian political scientist Imad Alsoos, in this conversation with Julius Dihstelhoff, explores how the intersection of symbolic power and social consent shapes the legitimacy of these movements. He emphasizes the role of embedded social practices in gaining public support for political authority.

When Writing Stutters: Adania Shibli and Zeina Halabi in Conversation

Listening to Adania Shibli, one feels herself in the presence of a storyteller like no other. The writer begins by diving into an idea and supplements it with a story in which she summons thinkers and turns them into fictional characters, then casts a light on marginal figures that places them at the core of the historical event. Shibli effortlessly moves between the written and the aural, between abstraction and narration, and she does it ever so playfully, ultimately distilling narrative into theory. A Conversation with Zeina G. Halabi.

Dealing with National Diversity – Conversation with Börries Kuzmany

A historian and slavicist by training, Börries Kuzmany is an associate professor for Modern History of Central and Eastern Europe at the University of Vienna. His research focus is on Central and Eastern Europe between the late 18th and the 20th Century, the Habsburg Empire, Poland, Ukraine and the Soviet Union in particular. He is interested in the history of nationalism, ethno-confessional diversity, borders, and languages, as well as in urban and Jewish history. He is the author of “Vom Umgang mit nationaler Vielfalt: Eine Geschichte der nicht-territorialen Autonomie in Europa.” A Conversation with Alex Favalli.

An Impossible Friendship – Conversation with Sonja Mejcher-Atassi

Sonja Mejcher-Atassi is a professor of Arabic and comparative literature at the American University of Beirut. She is the author of “An Impossible Friendship: Group Portrait, Jerusalem Before and After 1948” (Columbia University Press 2024). In it, she retraces the story of five friends, or a “small ecumenical circle”, who came together in Jerusalem before 1948 and parted ways after a historical caesura. A Conversation with Jacqueline Wagner.