ESF

Research programme on
"Individual and society in the Mediterranean Muslim World"


Activity summary (May 1996 - October 1999)

Plenaries, seminars and workshops

Plenaries

First plenary session (90 participants), Granada (Spain), 26-28 May 1996

Following three years of preparatory thematic and logistical work, the first plenary session officially opened the scientific activities of this research program. Participants from Western and Eastern Europe, Turkey and Middle Eastern countries (Egypt, Tunis, Morocco, Israel, etc.), both established senior researchers and also "juniors" (post-doctorals with a few pre-doctorals), worked together for the first time as a research unit within the framework of seven teams, each studying specific aspects of the individual in relation to the Mediterranean Muslim world. Introductory and concluding plenary sessions grouped the totality of the researchers together for the purpose of publicly expressing the common objectives of the program:

(1) Original analytical research conducted on the seven themes with the goal of identifying basic and particular characteristics of the individual in the various contexts described in the proposals of the program.
(2) Training of young researchers via their participation in the teams' seminars and workshops as active contributors and paper presenters.
(3) Circulation of this research to the international scholarly community (through a series of publications: a first volume appeared in June 1998 (Editions Paul Roubaud, Aix-en-Provence), several volumes are currently being prepared for edition with SUNY (New York) and with Maisonneuve & Larose (Paris).

Second plenary session (100 participants), Istanbul (Turkey), 3-7 July 1998

As this event marked the midway point of the program, emphasis was put upon identifying transversal themes which emerged within and across the research carried out by the seven teams and which will form the focus of the third and final general session. The structure of the Istanbul plenary was similar to that of Grenada in that it also began with a general introductory session attended by all participants to set the tone of the work and during which the ESF chairman adressed the assembly of researchers. This was followed by two days of individual team meetings with a presentation and discussion of 85 papers (please see annex). However, the concluding general session in Istanbul not only included the chairman's remarks and team leaders' reports on their groups' scientific activities but was also the forum for two Turkish professors who presented papers on the individuality of the woman in contemporary Turkey.

Third program-wide session, site and date to be determined

The aim of this brain-storming session, planned to take place during 1999, is to scrutinize the goals set in the beginning of the project with the achievements attained during the program. As the final general gathering, this session will host approximately three members from each team in addition to several invited scholars from outside the program with the additional objective of further identifying transversal themes which cross through the research studied and presented during the program's seminars and workshops which occurred over the past three years in Europe, Turkey and the Middle East. The most original and pervasive themes in the research will be evaluated in a final volume to be published at the conclusion of the program.

Robert ILBERT, University of Provence/MMSH, Program initiator and chairman
Randi DEGUILHEM, CNRS, IREMAM/MMSH, Program research coordination and publications


Seminars and workshops

Team I: Forms of belonging and modes of social integration

Team leader Klaus KREISER (Bamberg University)
Activity leaders Klaus KREISER (Bamberg University), Manuela MARÍN (CSIC, Madrid) and Avner GILADI, Haifa University

Team II: Norms and oppositions

Team leader Walter DOSTAL (Vienna University)
Activity leaders: Huri ISLAMOGLU-INAN (Middle East Technical University, Ankara) and Eugene ROGAN (Oxford University)

Team III: Power relationships

Team leader: Paul DUMONT (Strasbourg University)
Activity leaders: Paul DUMONT (Strasbourg U.), Michael URSINUS (Heidelberg U.), Mounira CHAPOUTOT-REMADI (Tunis University), Mohamed Hédi CHERIF (Tunis University) and Tuomo MELASUO (Tampere University)

Team IV: Modes of production

Team leader: Zafer TOPRAK (Bogazici University)
Activity leaders: Nelly HANNA (American University of Cairo); Suraiya FAROQHI (Munich University); Jean-Paul PASCUAL (CNRS, IREMAM/MMSH, Aix-en-Provence)

Team V: Images and representations

Team leader: Robin OSTLE (Oxford University)
Activity leaders: Robin OSTLE (Oxford University)
, Remke KRUK (Rijksuniversity, Leiden), Christoph BÜRGEL (Bern University)

Team VI Religious activity and experience

Team leader: Mercedes GARCÍA-ARENAL (CSIC, Madrid)
Activity leaders: Mercedes GARCÍA-ARENAL (CSIC, Madrid), Fernando RODRÍGUEZ MEDIANO (CSIC, Madrid), Knut S. VIKØR (Bergen) and Jan HJÄRPE (Lund)

Team VII : Muslims in Contemporary Western Europe

Team leader: Felice DASSETTO (Louvain-la-Neuve)
Activity leader: Felice DASSETTO (Louvain-la-Neuve)

Detail of seminars and workshops

Group I: Forms of Belonging and Modes of Social Integration

Team leader: Klaus KREISER, Bamberg University

Seminars

1996-1997

Bamberg University

Seminar organized by Klaus Kreiser

CSIC, Madrid, "Sources of women's history"

Seminar organized by Manuela Marín

Haifa University, "Women, children and child-woman relations in Middle Eastern Muslim Societies"

Part I: Comparative Studies
Seminar organized by Avner Giladi Part II: The Muslim World

Workshops

1997

"Sources for the History of the Mediterranean Muslim Woman"

Organized by Manuela Marín, Mulhouse, 20-21 September 1997

1998

Istanbul workshop

3-5 July 1998

"Education of the Individual in the Mediterranean Muslim World"

Organized by Manuela Marín, Salamanca, 15-17 October 1998

1999

"Childhood individuation in the Mediterranean Muslim World

Organized by Klaus Kreiser and Avner Giladi, Sarajevo, October 1999 (in preparation)

Group II: Norms and Oppositions

Team leader: Walter DOSTAL, Vienna University

Seminars

1996-1997

Middle East Technical U., Ankara, "The Emergence of Land Law"

Organized by Huri Islamoglu-Inan

St. Antony's College, Oxford University, "Marginality and exclusion"

Organized by Eugene Rogan

Workshops

1997

"Norms and Oppositions: Plurality of Norms and State Power from the 18th to 20th centuries"

Organized by Walter Dostal, Vienna, 26-27 September 1997

1998

Istanbul workshop

3-5 July 1998

1999

"Marginal Milieux and Practices"

Organized by Eugene Rogan, Oxford, May 1999 (in preparation)

"Private Property in the Ottoman Empire"

Organized by Martha Mundy, London, Spring 1999 (in preparation)

Group III: Power Relationships

Team leader: Paul DUMONT, Strasbourg University

Seminars

1996-1997

Strasbourg and Heidelberg Universities, "Individual identity and power relationships in Mediterranean Muslim societies"

Seminar organized by Paul Dumont and Michael Ursinus

In Strasbourg:

In Heidelberg:

Tunis University: "Individual paths in the Egyptian, Syrian and North African societies"

Organized by Mounira Chapoutot-Remadi and Mohamed Hedi Cherif

1997-1998

"Individual identity and power relationships in Mediterranean Muslim societies"

In Strasbourg: In Heidelberg:

Tunis University, "Individual paths in the Egyptian, Syrian and North African societies"

Organized by Mounira Chapoutot-Remadi and Mohamed Hedi Cherif

Workshops

1997

"Individual identity and power relations"

Organized by Paul Dumont, Istanbul, 12-14 June 1997

Reshaping the individual and power relations in the context of colonial experiences

Organized by Tuomo Melasuo, Tampere University (Finland), 12-14 September 1997

1998

Istanbul workshop

3-5 July 1998

Group IV: Modes of Production

Team leader: Zafer TOPRAK, Bogazici University

Seminars

1997

American University in Cairo

Organized by Nelly Hanna

1998

American University in Cairo

Organized by Nelly Hanna

1999

American University in Cairo

Organized by Nelly Hanna

Maison Mediterraneenne des Sciences de l'Homme, Aix-en-Provence, 26-28 February 1999: "Individual relations with and within Ottoman guilds"

Organized by Jean-Paul Pascual (in preparation)

2-3 April 1999 and 14-15 May 1999: "The individual, poverty and wealth"

(in preparation, paper titles are subject to change)

Workshops

1997

"Individual and enrichment in the Mediterranean Muslim World"

Organized by Zafer Toprak, Istanbul, 5-7 September 1997

"Ottoman Guilds, 16th - 19th centuries"

Organized by Suraiya Faroqhi, Munich University, 24-25 October 1997

1998

Istanbul workshop

3-5 July 1998

1999

"Economics and the individual in the Mediterranean Muslim world from the anthropological perspective"

Organized by John Davis, Oxford, Spring 1999 (in preparation)

Group V: Images and Representations

Team leader: Robin OSTLE, Oxford University

Seminars

1996-1997

Oxford and Leiden Universities, "Individuation in literature and art: marginal voices"

Organized by Robin Ostle and Remke Kruk

In Oxford:

In Leiden:

Workshops

1997

"Poets'/writers' missions as seen by themselves"

Organized by Christoph Bürgel, Bern, 14-16 July 1997

"Images and Representations"

Organized by Robin Ostle and Michael Gilsenan, Florence, 26-28 September 1997

1998

Istanbul workshop

3-5 July 1998

Group VI: Religious activity and experience

Team leader: Mercedes GARCÍA-ARENAL, CSIC, Madrid

Seminars

1996-1997

CSIC, Madrid, "Political language, action and religion"

Organized by Mercedes García-Arenal and Fernando Rodríguez Mediano

1998

Lund and Bergen Universities, "Political language, action and religion"

Organized by Jan Hjärpe and Knut Vikør

In Lund

In Bergen

Workshops

1997

"Conversion to Islam in the Mediterranean Muslim World"

Organized by Mercedes García-Arenal, Rome, 4-6 September 1997

1998

Istanbul workshop

3-5 July 1998

Group VII: Muslims in Contemporary Western Europe"

Team leader: Felice DASSETTO, Catholic University of Louvain

Workshops

1996

"Definition de la problematique sur les nouveaux discours islamiques en Europe"

Organized by Felice Dassetto, 25-26 October 1996, Universite catholique de Louvain, Belgium

1997

"Definition de la thematique des appartenances"

Organized by Felice Dassetto, 31 Jan - 1 Febr 1997, Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques, Paris

"Muslims in Contemporary Western Europe"

Organized by Felice Dassetto, 25-27 September 1997, Louvain-la-Neuve

1998

Conversion a l'Islam en Europe contemporaine

30-31 January 1998, Universite catholique de Louvain, Belgium

1998

Istanbul workshop

3-5 July 1998
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