Tuesday, 31 March 2026
15:30-16:00: Welcome and Opening Remarks, University of Gabès (Higher Institute of Languages), Tunisia
Mehrez Romdhan (Rector, University of Gabès)
Lassaad Heni (Director, ISLG)
Emna Beltaïef (Director, MECAM /Vice President, University of Tunis)
Cyrine Kortas (MECAM long-term fellow/University of Gabès)
Diana Abbani (MECAM/Forum Transregionale Studien)
16:00-17:00: Keynote | A Tapestry of Sufi Threads, Time, Space, and Self, to Revive the Maghreb City
Chair: Yassine Najjar (University of Gabès)
Cyrine Kortas (MECAM long-term fellow/University of Gabès)
Wednesday, 01 April 2026
9:00-11:00 (Parallel sessions)
Working group 1 | Vision, Liminality, and Cinematic Space (Workshop Format)
Chair: Miriam Hanses (MECAM/Forum Transregionale Studien)
Friederike Pannewick (Philipps-Universität Marburg) – Magical Realism as artistic mode of liminality, transgression and imaginative agency
Oraib Toukan (EUME fellow) – On Mustafa Akkad’s Message
Working group 2 | Framing Sufism: State Power, Heritage, and Religious Governance
Chair: Emna Beltaïef (Director, MECAM /Vice President University of Tunis)
Isabelle Werenfels (SWP) – Post-independence Framings of Sufis in the Maghreb: Dynamic, Contradictory, and Instrumentalizing
Souad Matoussi (University of Sousse) – Les danses mystiques en Tunisie, entre espace sacré, espace privé ou public et espace scénique
Rym Lajmi (University of La Manouba) – Saïda Manoubia entre chant de louange et mystique de la naġra
11:00-11:15 Coffee Break
11.15-12.15 Listening Session | Listening Otherwise
Alia Mossallam (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin) – Listening in solidarity and with the heart. Towards a mystical-methodology of hearing North African prisoners of war in the Lautarchiv
12:15-13:15 Lunch Break
13:15-14:15 (Parallel sessions)
Working Group 3 | Embodied Practices of Mysticism: Art, Ritual, and Sacred Movement
Chair: Julius Dihstelhoff (MECAM director)
Chiraz Mosbah (University of Manouba) – L’art contemporain au service de la réactivation des espaces mystiques de Sousse
Çiçek Ilengiz (Forum Transregionale Studien) – The Spatial Infrastructure of the Annual Love Pilgrimage for Mevlana Celaleddin Rumi in Contemporary Turkey
Working Group 4 | Text, Imagination, and Urban Transcendence
Chair: Rashof Salih (MECAM/ Forum Transregionale Studien)
Susan Abraham (EUME fellow) – Matters of the Heart: Morisco Ethics and Diasporic Disposition in Early Modern Tunis
Yassine Najjar (University of Gabès) – Postmodern Mysticism and the City: Absence and Excess in Cormac McCarthy’s and Don DeLillo’s Fiction.
14:15-14:30 Coffee Break
14:30-15:30 Art Session | Narrating the City: Calligraphy, Fiction, and Urban Memory
Chair: Cyrine Kortas (MECAM Fellow/ University of Gabès)
Forat al-Hatab (Artist) – Where Did The Octopus Go? Where Did The Crab Come From? Tales and elements from Kerkennah Islands and Gabes
Zeineb Mchirgui (Artist) – Spiritual Memory in Calligraphy (in Arabic)
Thursday, 02 April 2026
9.30-10.30 Panel 1 | Mysticism in Translation: Colonial Frames and Literary Reimagining
Chair: Diana Abbani (MECAM/ Forum Transregionale Studien)
نجاة الطاهر قرفال (جامعة قابس) – تمثّلات الاستعراب البلجيكيّ للتصوّف عند ابن تيمة: يحيى ميشو مثالا
هيكل الحزقي (كاتب) – أجواد المدينة وأوغادها: عن البانديّة كأنصاف صالحين في مدينة مأزومة
10:30-10:45 Coffee Break
10:45-11:45 Closing conversation | Stambeli’s Future: Tradition, Art and Spirituality
Vanessa Barisch (Journalist) in conversation with Mariem Mtiraoui (Journalist) and Ahmed Guerfel (Artist)
11:45-12:00 Closing Remarks
11:45-12:45 Lunch break
