Call for Applications: MECAM Individual Fellowship Application 2024–2025

The Merian Centre for Advanced Studies in the Maghreb (MECAM) invites applications for nine fellowships for postdoctoral and advanced researchers in the humanities and social sciences for the period from September 2024 to April 2025. Under the overall theme “Imagining Futures: Dealing with Disparity” MECAM is dedicated to a research agenda framed by five interrelated ‘Interdisciplinary Research Fields’ (IRFs): Aesthetics & Cultural Practice, Inequality & Mobility, Memory & Justice, Resources & Sustainability, and Identities & Beliefs. Applications should be related to the main theme and at least one of the IRFs. This call for applications is open to researchers from all countries, including Tunisia. MECAM has been established at the Université de Tunis/Tunisia in October 2020 to strengthen internationalization, free academic research and cooperation in the Humanities and Social Sciences in, with and across the Maghreb, and other regions of the world.

With this call for applications, MECAM invites postdoc and advanced scholars in the social sciences and humanities to apply for individual fellowships with their own research projects that relate to one or more of MECAM’s Interdisciplinary Research Fields (IRFs) under the guiding theme of “Imagining Futures: Dealing with Disparities”:

• IRF 1) Aesthetics & Cultural Practice examines how aesthetic forms and cultural practices influence the process by which models and imaginations of the future are expressed and (re-)negotiated. It also investigates the ways in which disparities, political and societal transformations influence aesthetic and cultural practices;

• IRF 2) Inequality & Mobility has a focus on social and economic inequalities, the resulting sense of insecurity, and their role in the (re-)negotiation of visions and models of the future. The IRF specifically explores how distinct forms of disparity (incl. concrete policy decisions) drive or restrain mobility and how in turn, mobility can exacerbate or mitigate inequality;

• IRF 3) Memory & Justice discusses legacies of the past, including their legal, political and cultural perceptions and frames in relation to different assessments of the present and to models and (re-)negotiations of the future. Research sheds light on the ways in which differential access to political power shapes questions of accountability, fact-finding, amnesty, judicial reforms, human rights claims and the legitimate sources of law in post-conflict societies and beyond;

• IRF 4) Resources & Sustainability investigates how societies in general and political decision-makers in particular deal with burgeoning socio-economic disparities and growing environmental problems. This IRF studies which economic models might ensure a politically, socially and ecologically sustainable future. Especially rentier and extractivist economic models in the Maghreb/Middle East are addressed here as these models generate particular forms of disparities and thus also interesting visions of the future;

• IRF 5) Identities & Beliefs examines co-existing, sometimes competing identities and belief systems which are partly impacted by political power dynamics. Disparities are felt, perceived and articulated very differently from the vantage point of diverse identities and beliefs, resulting in pluralistic ways of (re-)negotiating imaginations and models of the future. Possible research foci are on different identities (religious, ethnic, national(ist), local(ist)), diverse political ideologies, and belief systems.

The Merian Centre for Advanced Studies in the Maghreb (MECAM), based in Tunis, promotes interdisciplinary, interregional, and intergenerational research. As a centre for Advanced Study, it is dedicated to free academic exchange with a focus the social and political processes and issues that divide and connect the Maghreb, the Middle East and Europe historically and in our time – e.g. beliefs, distribution of resources, migration, rule of law, socio-economic conflicts, and (transitional) justice. MECAM aims to construct and strengthen scholarly networks between Tunisia and Germany, across the Maghreb, the Middle East, Europe, and other regions of the world. From a vantage point in the Maghreb, MECAM’s guiding theme "Imagining Futures: Dealing with Disparity" addresses the complex processes of (re-) negotiating societal experiences into ideas for the future ('imagining futures’) within the context of different forms and scales of disparity and unequal conditions ('disparity'). It explores the connection between multidimensional disparity and the possibilities of building and negotiating futures through five thematic interdisciplinary research fields (IRFs): “Aesthetics & Cultural Practice”, “Inequality & Mobility”, “Memory & Justice”, “Resources & Sustainability”, and “Identities & Beliefs”.

Eligibility and motivation

Applications are welcome from postdoc and advanced researchers of all fields in the social sciences and humanities if

• You are interested in discussing your research in the framework of MECAM's main theme "Imagining futures: Dealing with disparity" with colleagues from the Maghreb, the Middle East, Europe, and other regions of the world.

• You want to engage in collaborative work, in debate and exchange with other researches working on topics related to the five IRFs.

• You are interested in revisiting your research from a different vantage point.

• You want to become part of a (new) network of interdisciplinary, intergenerational, and transregional exchange and debate on disparity and the competing models for the future that co-exist in the societies of the contemporary Maghreb, Europe, and other parts of the world.

The Offer

Fellowship

Six post-doctoral and three advanced researchers will be invited as MECAM Fellows on the basis of an evaluation of the quality and originality of their research proposal. Projects should address one or more of the themes sketched out in the IRFs. Fellows are expected to take up residency for up to 8 months in Tunis, from 1 September 2024 to 31 April 2025. During the period of their residency, Fellows of MECAM gain the freedom to work on their self-chosen individual research projects and the opportunities for exchange in and outside MECAM, with their co-fellows, and colleagues from Tunisia and from MECAM’s networks. Fellows participate in on-site seminars and expected to work regularly at MECAM. They will be invited to formats that support collaborative work and to participate in the academic life of MECAM. While developing their own research, fellows are expected to take up residence in Tunis, present their work to their co-fellows and in close individual coordination with a Tunisian University. Moreover, fellows commit to participate at weekly in-person colloquia, to contribute a MECAM paper (https://mecam.tn/mecam-papers/) and to co-organize an in-person workshop within the framework of MECAM’s fellow seminar (“MECAM Spectrum”) with the involvement of MECAM’s Principal Investigators working on IRFs and/or external experts. MECAM will host the selected fellows in Tunis. Successful applicants will become ‘MECAM fellows’ with all relevant rights and obligations: Travel and relocation costs will be compensated according to a “no gain/no loss” principle. Furthermore, proven research costs can be reimbursed up to an amount of 1000 EUR. A monthly stipend will be awarded for the duration of the fellowship according to the same “no gain/no loss” principle.

Network

MECAM Fellows will become part of a network, which will be built up by subsequent groups of fellows over the next years, and by the scholars of the institutions that are involved in the institutional framework. MECAM and its partner institutions offer networking and publication opportunities via specific networks, formats and support.

Exchange and debate

The primary aim of MECAM is to create a high-quality and flexible setting for peer-to-peer exchange and debate between researchers from different countries, disciplines, and in different phases of their academic career: The fellowship combines virtual and in-person forms of exchange and debate, and facilitates collaboration and engagement with scholars at MECAM partner institutions, students, and the wider public. MECAM’s directors and the coordination office in Tunis will support the fellows during their stay at MECAM. Part of MECAM’s academic life is its fellow seminar (“MECAM Spectrum”) in which Fellows present their work to the other Fellows, a seminar where they can invite guests from outside MECAM. MECAM’s partners offer further opportunities for publication and exchange.

Fexibility

MECAM fellows can pursue their individual research projects in the form they choose, be it an academic article, an essay, a policy paper, a book, a report, etc. Projects can have particular components of field or archive research (in Tunis, and/or a neighbouring state in the Maghreb if the duration does not conflict in principle with the obligation for residence).

Support

MECAM provides its fellows with shared office workspaces as well as publication facilities for open-access and peer-reviewed formats of publication through the infrastructures of MECAM and its partners. It offers logistical support with travel, accommodation and field research in Tunisia. Moreover, the exchange between fellows is supported by a secure digital workspace (TrafoHub) and other digital tools.

Your application

MECAM assigns its partner institution, Forum Transregionale Studien in Berlin, with the processing of personal application data. Therefore, we kindly ask you to submit your application via the secure online application platform of the Forum Transregionale Studien by 4 March 2024, 12:30 p.m. CEST: application.trafo-berlin.de

Applications by email will not be considered. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact MECAM’s science communication coordinator, Dr. Diana Abbani: [email protected].

As part of your application, you will be asked to prepare and upload:

• Curriculum vitae including publications (2–3 pages),

• A motivation letter outlining a detailed explanation of how your research proposal is connected to the Maghreb region and aligns with MECAM's guiding theme “Imagining Futures- Dealing with Disparity” and at least one of its IRFs (1–2 pages),

• Research proposal: Short abstract of your project (max. 1000 words),

• Names and contact details of two referees (university faculty members or practitioners in a field relevant to the applicant’s project; no letters of recommendation required),

• One recent writing sample: journal article (published or forthcoming), book or thesis chapter.