University College Cork to host workshop on Contemporary Algeria
University College Cork to host workshop on Contemporary Algeria
University College Cork to host workshop on Contemporary Algeria
The workshop, funded by the Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences (IRCHSS) will discuss contemporary perspectives on a country which is little known despite its size and geo-political significance. The second largest country in Africa, and the largest country in the Arab world, Algeria is the fourth largest crude oil producer in Africa and the third largest gas supplier to Europe. Situated between the Mediterranean and Sub-Saharan Africa, the country is attracting the support of the US, EU and China who hope to benefit from its wealth and strengthen its strategic importance in the aftermath of the Arab Spring.
What can literature, cinema and popular culture tell us about Algeria? What insights can culture give us into the history of Algeria — with its complex relationship to France, to its Maghrebian neighbours and to Islam — when it is re-worked into cultural forms? These are some of the questions that will be addressed during the workshop, which is part of a major IRCHSS research project entitled ‘ Algeria: Nation and Transnationalism 1988-2010’ and which will attract participants from the US, France, Italy, Belgium, Algeria and Ireland.
“The workshop will look to the national narratives that are told and depicted in Algeria, in particular, we analyse what is forgotten and what is commemorated, and ask why,” comments workshop organiser, Dr. Patrick Crowley (Government of Ireland Senior Research Fellow, Department of French). “We are delighted that the Algerian writer Salim Bachi will offer a keynote address.” Bachi is recognised as perhaps the most important of the new generation of Algerians writing in French and was recently appointed to the IMPAC Jury for the 2013 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. “ We are confident that the workshop will result in new insights into this important and diverse country”.
Where? Room G 27a, O’Rahilly Building, University College Cork
Who? Keynote speakers: Salim Bachi (writer) and Jane Hiddleston (Exeter College, Oxford)
Part of the Irish Research Council for Humanities and Social Sciences Project ‘Algeria: Nation and Transnationalism’.