The Maghreb Review and Maghreb Studies Association Conference
To be held in Oxford on 13 and 14 September 2021
Call for original papers
EMPIRES IN THE MIDDLE EAST AND THE MAGHREB: THE SHAPING OF HOPES AND PERSPECTIVES
The aim of this conference is to examine how European colonialism and great power rivalry in the Middle East and North Africa have shaped the perspectives of the peoples in these countries and their hopes for their future. Besides the European powers that established their colonial hegemony in these countries, the conference will also deal with the influence of countries, such as the United States of America and Germany, which extended their influence through diplomacy, financial and military aid, and education.
The chronological framework of the conference extends from the mid-eighteenth century, when the political leaders of the countries of the Middle East and North Africa became aware of the Europeans’ economic and military ascendency, through the building of European colonial empires in the nineteenth and early twentieth century, to the collapse at first of the western European colonial empires towards the middle of the twentieth century and then of the Soviet “empire” late in this century.
This theme, then, should invite original papers dealing with various aspects of the question of how colonial rule, and its demise, has shaped the perceptions of one another held by the colonial powers and the colonised peoples of the Middle East and North Africa. They should also deal, besides the influence the colonial structures had on the political systems that emerged in these countries, with debates and conflicts that came to the fore in them in the post-colonial period.
Special significance should be given to the means by which Muslims affirmed in this period their attachment to Islamic norms and pride in Islamic civilisation, and the challenge they posed to the creation of western systems of government in their countries. Related to this issue is the Westerners’ fear that the presence of growing numbers of Muslims in their countries would lead to the intrusion of Islamic political and family norms in their societies. An equally significant issue that should be dealt with is the prospect of the replacement of the authoritarian regimes that emerged in the countries of the Middle East and North Africa in the post-colonial period by truly democratic systems of government that promote the rule of law, freedom of discussion and the emergence of civil societies.
Proposal submission and Abstracts: