Mobility and religions in Mediterranean Africa (Antiquity – Present times)
Mobilité et religions en Afrique méditerranéenne (Antiquité - temps présent)
Published on Friday, March 01, 2019
Abstract
The circulation of individuals and the associated religious dynamics are central in the ongoing debates regarding mobility in Mediterranean Africa. This doctoral workshop will then tackle the religious facts and the religious issues resulting from the mobility that, during the course of history, has affected North Africa and made it an interface between Mediterranean and Sub-Saharan Africa or even the Middle East. Long-term studies, from Antiquity to present times, allow the heritage of each period of history in contemporary religious dynamics, and the mobility to which they are linked, to be fully measured.
Announcement
Dates of the doctoral workshop: June 10th to 13th 2019
Place:Centre Jacques Berque35 R401, Rabat 10020, Maroc
Presentation
This doctoral workshop is organized as part of the scientific collaboration between the School of Advanced Hispanic and Iberian Studies (Casa de Velázquez, Madrid), the French School in Rome, the Jacques Berque Centre (CJB, Rabat) and the Scientific Institute on Contemporary Maghreb (IRMC, Tunis). This collaboration aims at promoting an interdisciplinary dialogue and PhD training in the Humanities and Social Sciences for young researchers working on Maghreb-related topics. The French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development - IRD, the International University of Rabat (Chair for Society, Culture and Religious Facts), as well as the University of Limoges, also supported this particular session.The circulation of individuals and the associated religious dynamics are central in the ongoing debates regarding mobility in Mediterranean Africa.
This doctoral workshop will then tackle the religious facts and the religious issues resulting from the mobility that, during the course of history, has affected North Africa and made it an interface between Mediterranean and Sub-Saharan Africa or even the Middle East. Long-term studies, from Antiquity to present times, allow the heritage of each period of history in contemporary religious dynamics, and the mobility to which they are linked, to be fully measured.
Mediterranean Africa has been a major point of encounter between the three main religions. The early development of Christianity in Africa, the origins of which we still know little about, benefited from a continuous circulation of believers, who linked the African and Mediterranean pastoral communities together. The new mobility that emerged from the Islamisation of Maghreb in the Middle Ages, and the political and religious battles that it caused, deeply altered the societies in North Africa. More widely, it also affected the relationships between northern and southern Africa, through the influence of the Ibadi Berbere missionary merchants, as well as between the northern and southern Mediterranean. One of the consequences of the latter was the long-term installation of Jewish communities in Maghreb. The contemporary mobilities across Mediterranean Africa create new and awaken ancient religious dynamics. They depend not only on collective religious motivations, but also on individual ones, which are necessary to distinguish when mapping the circulation of individuals. The anthropological and sociological studies carried out from Maghreb to Egypt also underline how mobility itself can generate religious encounters and even religious conversions.
By crossing the paradigms between religion and mobility, we can evaluate the influence of religion on the renewing of migratory issues, and also the importance of migration in the contemporary religious reshaping in Sub-Saharan and Mediterranean Africa. Within migration, religion builds identities, sometimes modifies routes, revives cult places, accompanies and welcomes foreigners, invests and redefines urban territories. It can even formulate new political questions in the societies it crosses. Within religion, mobility questions certainty, permits new encounters, even sometimes creates conflicts, but it is also a resource for rethinking contemporary theologies.The objective of the workshop is to cross disciplinary approaches, research fields, periods and corpus of sources, in order to offer the young participants a methodological and scientific opening on a common study topic and to explore its richness. We will therefore tackle, through the proposed works, the origin and challenges of past and present mobility in northern Africa, in religious matters. For this reason, the training that this workshop proposes is directed to PhD students and young researchers in the Humanities and Social Sciences, whose field of investigation expands from Maghreb to Egypt.Each participant will be actively involved in the enrichment of the exchanges, presenting his/her PhD research subject, and contributing to the collective reflection, which will be led by senior researchers from several disciplinary fields.
Instructors
- Sophie Bava Socio-anthropologist, IRD
- Léon BuskensJurist, Director of NIMAR, Attaché in charge of Education at the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Morocco
- Anouk CohenAnthropologist, CNRS
- Farid El Asri Anthropologist, UIR
- Lucine Endelstein Geographer, CNRS
- Stéphanie GuédonHistorian, University of Limoges
- Oissila SaaidiaHistoran, University of Lyon and director of the IRMC
- Bakary SambeHistorian, director of the Timbuktu Institute
- Élise Voguet Historian, CNRS and Director of the IISMM
Organization
The workshop will take place over four days of work in the presence of specialists in the field. It will prioritize the interventions of doctoral students and young researchers through workshops dedicated to the doctoral research of the students participating in the session. These will be complemented by discussion sessions and lectures. A public evening debate is also scheduled in parallel, at the al-Mowafaqa Institute. The objective of these four days is to bring together young researchers from the shores of the Mediterranean and beyond, who work on African issues and share a common thematic entry, that of mobility across different disciplines.This workshop will then allow to address not only the knowledge itself, but also the research and writing methods specific to each of these disciplines.
Practical conditions
Applications may be submitted in either French or English. Debates and interventions during the doctoral workshop will also be realized in these two languages.The organizers provide accommodation to all participants (from June 9th to 14th – 5 nights) in a shared twin bedroom in a hotel of the centre of Rabat, as well as breakfasts, lunches (10, 11, 12, 13 June) and dinners (10, 11, 12 June).Transportation and other restoration costs will be at the expense of the participants. The workshop is residential. The selected applicants are required to assiduously attend all meetings.At the end of the doctoral workshop, a certificate of participation will be issued to participants. We may deny this certificate to those who, without justification, have not diligently attended the work sessions.
Application deadline: March 10th 2019 - 17h, Madrid time
The 20 participants will be selected on the basis of their academic record, profile and knowledge of languages. Priority will be given to the applicants whose PhD or post-doctoral (maximum three years after thesis defence) research studies fall within the main topics of the workshop.
As a reminder, the problematic lines around which research projects must be directed (from Antiquity to the present times) are: religious constructions and renewals resulting from mobility, religious dynamics (of the three main monotheistic religions) in Mediterranean and sub-Saharan Africa, the circulation of individuals and religious motivations and solidarity, mobility and religious conversions, migration "routes" and religious signposts, tensions and contradictions around the religious fact in host or transit countries.
For this reason applicants must submit :
- A cover letter indicating the applicant's academic background
- A title and an abstract of the proposed intervention.
For any information, please contact : Soledad Durán - soledad.duran@casadevelazquez.org / 0034 914 551 580
Registration required
Application deadline: March 10th 2019 - 17h, Madrid time
Organisation
Coord.
- Sophie BAVA (LPED – UMR 151 AMU-IRD),
- Stéphanie GUÉDON (EA 4270-CRIHAM, Université de Limoges)
Org.:
- Centre Jacques-Berque (UMIFRE 2, USR 3136, Rabat),
- École des hautes études hispaniques et ibériques (Casa de Velázquez, Madrid),
- École française de Rome, Institut de recherche sur le Maghreb contemporain (UMIFRE 1, USR 3077, Tunis)
Coll.: UMR 151 (Laboratoire Population, Environnement, Développement, Aix-Marseille Université – Institut de recherche pour le développement), IRD/LMI Movida, EA 4270 (CRIHAM, Université de Limoges), Université Internationale de Rabat
Subjects
- History (Main category)
Places
- Centre Jacques Berque
Rabat, Kingdom of Morocco (10020)
Date(s)
- Sunday, March 10, 2019
Keywords
- mobilité, religion, afrique, méditerranée
Contact(s)
- Soledad Durán
courriel : ehehi [at] casadevelazquez [dot] org
Reference Urls
Information source
- Matthieu Iandolino
courriel : secdir [at] casadevelazquez [dot] org
License
This announcement is licensed under the terms of Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal.
To cite this announcement
« Mobility and religions in Mediterranean Africa (Antiquity – Present times) », Summer School, Calenda, Published on Friday, March 01, 2019, https://doi.org/10.58079/125o
