#MECAM SERIES PODCAST BEYOND BOUNDARIES
The Merian Centres, including MECAM (Tunisia), CALAS (Mexico), ICAS:MP (India), MECILA (Brazil), and MIASA (Ghana), are collaborating on a podcast series titled “Beyond Boundaries: Exploring Inequality and Freedom in the Global South” for the “Deutsches Wissenschaftsjahr 2024”. This series aims to dissect the entangled relationship between inequality and freedom, particularly focusing on different Global South’s landscapes. The series will delve into various dimensions of inequality, such as economic disparities, access to education and healthcare, political participation, and human rights, with a spotlight on historical legacies like colonization and global power imbalances. Despite these challenges, the podcasts will also showcase grassroots movements and local initiatives striving for inclusive governance and sustainable practices.
The short title “Beyond Boundaries” underscores the series’ mission of fostering cross-border dialogue, innovative thinking, collaboration, and personal growth among researchers. It seeks to challenge traditional epistemologies and promote international approaches to understanding and addressing inequality and freedom. The podcasts aim to reach a broad audience, including academia, policymakers, and the general public, both within and beyond the Merian Centres’ networks. Leveraging the advantages of podcasts, such as accessibility, flexibility, and interactivity, the series seeks to facilitate knowledge dissemination, cross-cultural exchange, and collaborative learning on a global scale.
#Memography: An African Perspective on Knowledge Production Theory
With Dr. Abdourahamane Seck
“Podcast Beyond Boundaries”
In this episode, Professor Mamadou Diawara (MIASA Director Germany) and Vanessa Barish (MECAM) speak with Dr. Abdourahamane Seck. Dr. Seck provides a compelling analysis of Memography, an approach that centers African in knowledge production. He explores how knowledge is generated, shared, and contested within African contexts, offering fresh insights into the broader conversations on inequality and freedom.
Featured Guest:
Dr. Abdourahamane Seck from Gaston Berger University in Senegal is a prominent scholar with a multidisciplinary background encompassing philosophy, anthropology, and modern and contemporary African history. Dr. Seck was a Fellow at MIASA from September to December 2023. He has widely published on Islam, migration, and the question of the in-commons in Africa (West Africa – Senegal).
#Discovering Islam in Its Margins: Manuscript Paratexts and the Elaboration of Islam's Scholastic Tradition
With Dr. Asma Helali
“Podcast Beyond Boundaries”
In this episode, Assoc. Prof Asma Helali (Université de Lille) explores how paratexts in Islamic manuscripts, such as marginal notes by scribes and readers, provide new insights into the formation, transformation, and development of Islamic religious traditions. She examines how these paratexts reveal aspects of freedom and inequality in the dissemination and interpretation of knowledge within the Islamic scholarly culture.
Featured Guest:
Asma Helali is an associate professor in Islamic Studies at the Université de Lille, where she works in the Department of Romance, Slavic and Oriental Languages. She earned her PhD in 2004 from the École Pratique des Hautes Études, specializing in the authenticity of prophetic tradition. She was a Fellow at MECAM from September 2023 to April 2024. Previously, she worked as a Research Fellow at the Institute of Ismaili Studies in London and as a Lecturer at the University of Fribourg.
#Cultural Context: Norms, Values, and Their Role in Maintaining or Overcoming Inequality
With Prof. Juan Piovani
“Podcast Beyond Boundaries”
In this episode, Professor Juan Piovani, former MECILA Director, joins us to discuss how inequality shapes the production and circulation of knowledge in the Global South, using Latin America as a case study. He highlights the disparities in resources and recognition between the Global North and South and examines the effects of right-wing extremism, post-truth narratives, and hate speech on academic freedom.
Featured Guest:
Professor Juan Piovani holds a PhD in Methodology of the Social Sciences from Sapienza Università di Roma (2005). He is a Professor of Social Research Methods at Universidad Nacional de La Plata in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and serves as the director of the PhD Program in Interdisciplinary Social Studies of Europe and Latin America. As the coordinator of the Latin American Network of Social Sciences Methodology (RedMet) and a principal researcher at CONICET and MECILA, Piovani has published extensively on research methods and social inequalities across multiple countries.
#Freedom and Inequalities Through Agrarian and Development Issues
With Dr. Max Ajil
“Podcast Beyond Boundaries”
In this episode, Dr. Max Ajl joins us to discuss agrarian and development issues in the Arab region. He offers profound insights into how local agrarian practices and development policies influence the landscape of social and environmental justice. We also explore sustainable and equitable development alternatives and examine how these practices reflect freedom and inequality within the global political economy.
Featured Guest:
Dr. Max Ajl is a long-term Fellow at MECAM (2023–2026). He holds a PhD in Development Sociology from Cornell University and an MA in Political Science from FLACSO, Quito. Dr. Ajl has served as an Associated Researcher at the Tunisian Observatory for Food Sovereignty and the Environment, a Senior Fellow in Conflict and Development Studies at Ghent University, and a researcher at HSCIF in Hamburg. He is the author of “A People’s Green New Deal” and has published extensively on climate politics, agrarian studies, and ecological planning. His research focuses on social and environmental justice, with a special interest in food sovereignty and the global political economy.