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Research projects

Current joint projects

Merian Centre for Advanced Studies in the Maghreb (MECAM) 
BMBF, 2023-2029 (Main Phase)

The Merian Centre for Advanced Studies in the Maghreb (MECAM) is an interdisciplinary, interregional and intergenerational research platform on the Maghreb and the Middle East. Founded in 2020 and funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), it is located at the renowned Université de Tunis, Tunisia. Under the guiding theme "Imagining Futures - Dealing with Disparity" MECAM is investigating the complex processes of (re)negotiating social models for the future in the region in the context of unequal starting conditions.

Led by the Philipps-Universität Marburg, the partners of the MECAM consortium in Germany include the GIGA - German Institute for Global and Area Studies in Hamburg, the Forum Transregionale Studien in Berlin and the Universität Leipzig. In addition to the Université de Tunis, regional partners include the Université de Sfax, the Université de Casablanca Hassan II and the Orient-Institut Beirut.

Further information can be found on MECAM´s official website

Concluded projects

Re-Configurations. History, Memory and Transformation Processes in the Middle East and North Africa
(BMBF, 2013-2019)

Further information on the Research Network Re-Configurations can be found here

Figures of Thought | Turning points. Cultural practices and social change in the Arab world.
Leibniz Research Group (DFG, 2012-2020)

Further information can be found here.

Islamists in the Regional Transformation Process: Dialogue and Documentation (German Foreign Office, 01.08. 2014- 31.12.2015)

Islamism in Egypt since the oustering of Mursis and regional implications (German Foreign Office, 01.05.-31.07.2014)

Dialogue forum with moderate Islamist actors from the transformation societies of the Middle East and North Africa (German Foreign Office, 01.10.2012- 15.02.2014)

Foreign policy ideas of moderate Islamist parties (DFG, 2009-2012)