Mobility, Exchanges and Cooperation between the Maghreb and the Socialist Countries during the Cold War
Study Days :
Date: 29- 30 October 2025
Location: Faculty of 9 April, University of Tunis
Languages: French-English / English-French (translation provided on site)
The Merian Center for Advanced Studies in the Maghreb (MECAM) is delighted to collaborate with the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Algeria and the Department of History of the European University Institute on this study day. MECAM fellow Massensen Cherbi will give a presentation, while fellows Yazid Benhadda and Souhir Zekri will each moderate a panel.
From 1945 to the end of the Cold War, relations between the Maghreb and socialist countries grew steadily. In the shadow of decolonization, political rapprochement, and, in some cases, military cooperation, particularly with independent Algeria, trade unionists, workers, students, and artists from the Maghreb travelled to and lived in Eastern Europe, while hundreds of Soviet and Eastern European teachers, technical experts, and civilian aid workers were active across North Africa.
These study days examine mobilities that were significant in scale and had lasting effects on cooperation and exchange. Building on the work of the ELITAF research group (“Elites africaines formées dans les anciens pays socialistes” – African elites trained in former socialist countries), they aim to recover experiences, trace both collective and individual trajectories, and highlight the distinctive features of these exchanges.
The program also explores how socialist ideas were renegotiated in these contexts and emphasizes the experiences of marginalized migrant workers, including those involved in agreements between the GDR and Algeria. Interdisciplinary in scope, the study days draw on social and intellectual history, the history of knowledge, sociology, and anthropology. The legacies of these mobilities and their memory remain central to the project.
Scholars, students, and anyone interested in social, cultural, and intellectual history are warmly invited to participate in the discussions and interdisciplinary exchanges.
Full Program : Link