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Tagged: Tunisia

Issues / MECAM

Migration and the New Pact for the Mediterranean: A Tunisian Perspective

Imene Gannouni Khemiri in Conversation with Julius Dihstelhoff. The Mediterranean has never been merely a geographical space separating Europe and North Africa.In this interview, Julius Dihstelhoff, MECAM Director ‘Germany’, speaks with Imene Gannouni Khemiri, Assistant Professor at the University of Manouba and MECAM Alumna. Drawing on her research on migration governance, media representations, and Euro-Tunisian relations, she discusses the New Pact from a Tunisian perspective and reflects on what a genuinely reciprocal Euro-Mediterranean partnership might look like.

A calm and serene ocean view during the day.

Issues / MECAM

The I in Mashta: A Journey through Women’s Voices, Rituals, and Memory in Tunisia

By Souhir Zekri. As an entertainer who dresses and praises the bride, the mashta turns into a symbolic maternal figure who supports and preserves the feminine community surrounding her. This central character also has potential for women’s empowerment, in spite of her economic difficulties, and can help preserve an intangible Tunisian cultural heritage and identity. The mashta thus stands at the intersection of women’s labor, motherhood, cultural transmission, and community. Her changing presence also raises questions about what happens to these forms of knowledge when the traditions that sustain them begin to disappear.

Four people sit on a panel and stage, facing the audience, deep in discussion.

Conversations / MECAM

Multilinguality in Academic Research and Publishing

Maria Josua in Conversation with Diana Abbani, Souhir Zekri Masson, Maxine Rubin, and Andreas Ufen. Scholars working with and on the world regions in the Global South face a dilemma of doing fieldwork and researching in local languages and then publishing results in international outlets dominated by the English language. In this conversation based on the roundtable, we reflect on this tension navigating the requirements of academic publishing and career-related issues, and regional and local academic traditions in Southeast and West Asia as well as the African continent.

A Decolonial Mediterranean – Disparities, Imaginations, Power Relations / MECAM

Between Trade-Based Food Security and Self-Sufficiency: Agricultural Policies and Sectors in Tunisia

By Emile van Ommeren. Around the globe, countries are rethinking their food policy strategies in response to the increasingly uncertain geopolitical situation and climate change. Many countries have expressed their interests in improving their levels of food self-sufficiency– i.e., the extent to which a country can satisfy its food needs from its own domestic production. Rather than taking a state-level perspective, my goal is to understand the role and position of Tunisian farmers in the current debate about food and trade policy. Is there broad support among farmers for a shift towards policies that prioritize local agricultural production? Or are producers in Tunisia divided over the question of how higher levels of food security can be attained?

Portrait of a person with short hair and glasses.

5in10 / Imagining Futures – Dealing with Disparity / MECAM

Machtat of Kerkenah: An Empowering Motherly Continuum and Cultural Heritage – 5in10 with Souhir Zekri

Souhir Zekri holds a PhD in English Studies from the University of Strathclyde (Glasgow, Scotland) and currently teaches at the Higher Institute of Digital Engineering of Tunis (University of Tunis). Her main research areas include life writing theory, motherhood and gender studies, the Italian Diaspora in Scotland, and spatial theory. She also writes short stories and first-person testimonies in relation to gender and harassment. In the academic year 2025–26, Souhir is a MECAM Fellow, working on her project on traditional women singers in Tunisia.

A group of women protesting.

Law and Care

The Juridification of Care and the Navigation of Sentiment in Post-Dictatorship Tunisia

By Ola Galal. As care became a legal category in Tunisia through Law 58, it opened up as well as foreclosed possibilities for political action and moral personhood, and reconstituted self, community, and labor amid great uncertainty during the transition to democracy. Yet this victim-centered approach also displaces the burden of care, support, and “empowerment” on a gendered labor force in the absence of the requisite legal mechanisms that enable the application of the henceforth abstract and broad clause of law about care and protection.

Issues / MECAM

Female Agency and Colonial Repression: Memory and Archives in Tunisia

By Nora Lafi. Reflecting on the role of women under colonialism crucially contributes to debates on how
to write the history thereof in contemporary Tunisia. Based on a corpus of original archives relating to French repression of women designated “rebels,” it is shown how a focus on women’s agency makes it possible to write the history of colonisation differently and to cast issues of memory in a new light.

MECAM / Reviews

Akouda 1943: A Voice from the Margins

By Cyrine Kortas. “Akouda 1943” is the third novel by Tunisian writer Houayda Ben Halima, published in 2017. The story takes place in the author’s hometown during World War II, when Tunisia was a battleground between Axis and Allied forces. Through her unique storytelling that merges history and fiction, Ben Halima informs readers about wartime politics while evoking deep emotional responses through well-developed characters and historical research to reflect on the human condition in times of conflict. For readers seeking a deep dive into the complexities of war through an engaging narrative lens, the novel offers a compelling experience that remains relevant today.

Academic Freedom / MECAM

Academic Freedom in Tunisia: Historical Contexts and Contemporary Challenges

In this conversation, Emna Beltaief, Vice President of the Université de Tunis, speaks with Julius Dihstelhoff, MECAM’s Academic Coordinator, on the state of academic freedom in Tunisia. They explore the historical trajectory from the Bourguiba and Ben Ali regimes to the post-2011 era, discussing the persistent tensions between academic freedom and political pressures.  Emna Beltaïef emphasizes the urgent need to protect academic spaces from political interference to ensure a thriving, critical academic environment.

Academic Freedom / MECAM

Decolonizing Academia at MIASA and MECAM: Academic Freedom and Research Ethics in Dialogue

By Julius Dihstelhoff & Agnes Schneider-Musah. On October 10, 2024, scholars from the Merian Centres for Advanced Studies (MIASA and MECAM) gathered at the Legon Campus of the University of Ghana in Accra for a roundtable on “Academic Freedom and Research Ethics: Dynamics in Ghana, Tunisia, and Germany.” As a contribution to the 2024 German Science Year theme “Freedom,” the event provided a platform for lively discussions on key issues in academic practice. The roundtable explored three primary themes, addressing the challenges and opportunities surrounding academic freedom.