“Religious Affairs in Secular
Colonial Algeria: Religious Associations and Local Politics,
1905-1945”
Dr. James McDougall, University of London,
School of Oriental and African Studies
February 2, 2008
As part of its continuing lecture series,
CEMA invited AIMS board member Dr. James McDougall (Department
of History, SOAS) to lecture on colonial religious policy in
French Algeria. In 1905, France legislated laïcité,
officially separating church and state. However, in Algeria,
the colonial regime appropriated religious endowments, or habus,
in the 1800s, rendering mosques and religious schools financially
dependent on the colonial state. The 1905 laws threatened the
Muslim religious establishment, and had they been fully implemented,
the results would have been disastrous. Dr. McDougall’s
presentation outlined the political debates within the colonial
establishment, exploring how local-level administrators and
indigenous elite worked to subvert the 1905 laws. Their actions,
he explained, had very unanticipated outcomes. The talk is
the second that Dr. McDougall has given at CEMA. More than
30 people attended the discussion
and lively debate.
“Managing Algerian identity in Colonial
France: the Case of Algerian’s Abroad”
Nordine Amara, History
Ph.D. Candidate, AIMS Grantee, Université de Paris I – Panthéon
Sorbonne
February 20, 2008
As part of a new joint Centre
d'Etudes Maghrébines en Algérie (CEMA) / Centre
Culturel Français
d’Oran lecture series called Série Doctorant,
to promote the research of Algerian and international doctoral
students, CEMA invited Mr. Nordine Amara (Department of
History, Université de Paris I – Panthéon Sorbonne)
to present the findings of his 2007-2008 American Institute
for Maghrib Studies-sponsored field research at the National
Archives in Morocco.
Mr. Amara’s presentation was well
received, by an audience composed of historians and sociologists
from the University
of Oran. Many University of Oran students and professors have
subsequently contacted CEMA in order to organize presentations
on their (or their student’s) research and find out more
about the American Institute for Maghrib Studies Grant Program.
