Winners of the Hazem Ben-Gacem Tunisian Visiting Studentships 2024-2025
The Middle East Centre (MEC) is delighted to announce the winners of the Hazem Ben-Gacem Tunisian Visiting Studentships for the 2024-2025 academic year:
- Michaelmas Term 2024: Ms Oumaima Bouaziz (Ecole Supérieur des Sciences et Technologies du Design, Manouba University), for her thesis ‘Designing Sacredness: Study of Contemporary Mosques in Tunisia’
- Hilary Term 2025: Ms Donia Kaffel (Faculty of Arts and Human Sciences of Sfax), for her thesis ‘Linking Adverbials in Tunisian Academic Writing: A Corpus-Based Study of Cohesion and Conjunction Across Genres and Disciplines’
- Trinity Term 2025: Mr Ayoub Majri (Institut Supérieur de Gestion, University of Tunis), for his thesis ‘Fragmented Journeys Undertaken by Sub-Saharan Migrants in Tunisia’
This award, for doctoral candidates registered in Tunisian universities to spend a term at St Antony’s College, has been launched as part of an exciting new programme. A highpoint of this year was on 4 March, when MEC Advisory Board member, Hazem Ben-Gacem, and MEC Director, Professor Eugene Rogan, met with the Minister of Higher Education in Tunis for the signing of an agreement establishing the Hazem Ben-Gacem Oxford Tunisia Exchange Programme. This programme will fund an exchange between Oxford and Tunisian universities for the next three years.
The programme is also supporting Oxford University students and scholars to engage in language training, research and exchange opportunities in Tunisia. Next year, the MEC looks forward to further expanding the programme to provide visiting fellowships.
This programme has been made possible thanks to the generosity of Hazem Ben-Gacem, with the involvement of the British Embassy and the Tunisian Ministry of Higher Education. The MEC is immensely grateful for their support and looks forward to welcoming the first Tunisian Visiting Students later this year.
