Remade by War: New Perspectives on Postwar North Africa

How were North Africa and its people transformed by World War II? How did the war shape the decolonization movements that intensified across North Africa after 1945? These are two of the questions this conference seeks to address. The historiography of World War II has largely centered the colonial state through a focus on either the military conflict or the War’s diplomatic impact. Instead, we turn to the transformative impact of the War on the lives of Muslims, Jews, and European settlers in all five North African colonies: French and Spanish Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya.

Contributions may address themes such as:
– Daily life during WWII and its aftermath
– The impact of the War on decolonization movements
– Transnational links across the Maghrib and beyond
– Changing gender relations
– Memories of WWII in music, film, and literature
– The economics of colonialism
– Migrations to and from North Africa

This conference offers scholars a forum to explore together the growing amount of research on these topics. Papers can be presented in either English or French. The conference will be held in Tunis at the Centre d’Etudes Maghrébines à Tunis (CEMAT) from 11 until 12 May 2023 and is open to the general public. The event is sponsored by the American Institute for Maghrib Studies (AIMS). We will provide hotel rooms and meals for all conference participants. In addition to this, we will cover the travel costs for all scholars currently working at North African institutions. Conference attendees may be asked to participate in recordings of the Maghrib in Past and Present Podcast. Selected participants will subsequently be invited to contribute to a special edition of The Journal of North African Studies.

Abstracts (up to 500 words) and a two-page CV should be submitted to smrahnama+AIMS@gmail.com by January 15, 2023. Please direct any inquiries about the conference to its organizers, Sara Rahnama (smrahnama@gmail.com) and David Stenner (david.stenner@cnu.edu).