Events

How do traditions and peoples grapple with loss, particularly when it is of such magnitude that it defies the possibility of recovery or restoration? Rajbir Singh Judge offers new ways to understand loss and the limits of history by considering Maharaja Duleep Singh and his struggle during the 1880s to reestablish Sikh rule, the lost […]

Join us for a book talk by Dr. Hicham Alaoui in which he will deliver insights about the battle for democracy in the Middle East, drawing upon his recent book, Pacted Democracy in the Middle East: Tunisia and Egypt in Comparative Perspective (Palgrave, 2022), also available in French (Le Cherche Midi, 2024) and Arabic (Dar […]

This talk begins with a question inspired by the work of the anthropologist David Scott, as to whether radical social transformation can remain a credible historical possibility if it is not undergirded by a belief in teleology. Does collectively willed transformation—the kind to which leftist and anticolonial movements have traditionally aspired—become unthinkable absent some degree […]

The Center for Jewish Studies presents, The Helen Diller Distinguished Lecture in Jewish Studies. Until the middle of the twentieth century, Algeria hosted an array of Jewish communities—some deeply-rooted, others more recently settled—that played important roles in North African society. French colonial rule, however, brought changes that profoundly reshaped Jews’ relationship to their Muslim neighbors. […]

Tamils in Northern and Eastern Sri Lanka endured a protracted civil war that ended in 2009 in Mullivaikkal. During the war’s end, hundreds of thousands of Tamils were murdered and several thousand were displaced. In this last phase, kanji (rice gruel) became the sole source of sustenance. Kanji, a versatile traditional Tamil dish that is […]

Film Screening and Panel Discussion:  5:30-7pm, Communications 150, Studio C Reception:  Communications 139, 7-8pm Marking the centenary of Frantz Fanon’s birth, the Center for Middle East and North Africa is hosting a film screening of True Chronicles of the Blida Joinville Psychiatric Hospital, the recent film by Algerian director Abdenour Zahzah that focuses on his […]

This workshop will bring together over a dozen scholars from the UC-system who research the Maghreb to share their work and exchange ideas. It is designed as a way of maintaining the rich network of expertise on this region found on the west coast. In addition to thematic panels, Susan Slyomovics (UCLA) will be presenting […]

In this talk, Susan Slyomovics will discuss her new book, Monuments Decolonized: Algeria’s French Colonial Heritage. "Statuomania" overtook Algeria beginning in the nineteenth century as the French affinity for monuments placed thousands of war memorials across the French colony. But following Algeria's hard-fought independence in 1962, these monuments took on different meanings and some were […]