The thesis award ceremony of the GIS African Studies will take place on Friday October 17, 2025 at 5:30 PM (at INALCO, auditorium, 2 rue de Lille, 75007 Paris). We invite you to register by filling out the dedicated form.
This year, the prize is being awarded to three laureates ex-aequo:
- Massinissa GARAOUN, Amazigh and Arabic in the Babors massif (eastern Kabylie, Algeria) - contribution to the typology of linguistic contacts.
Supervised by Mina Mettouchi (EPHE- LLACAN) and Martine Vanhove (CNRS, LLACAN)
Abstract:
The Babors are a mountainous massif located in eastern Kabylie in the northeast of Algeria. Two languages are spoken there, Jijelian Arabic and Tasakhil. Tasakhil is an Amazigh language, the oldest known language family in northwest Africa. Jijelian is an Arabic dialect that emerged after the first wave of Arab-Muslim conquests in North Africa (7th -9th centuries). We have studied the history of contacts between these languages since the Islamic Golden Age until today by describing linguistic traits inherited from contact and comparing them with current knowledge on language typology to establish historical sociolinguistic scenarios. We considered, on a micro-local scale, the geographical factor and the various historical layers by working with data from five varieties collected in the field. We described the current sociolinguistic situation, especially the different levels of bilingualism, to reconstruct the historical power relations between communities and their languages. One of the interests of this study is the types of contact involved between genetically related languages that are typologically close (Aikhenvald 2007, Hickey 2007).
- Corten PÉREZ-HOUIS, The city in the mold. Ordering and resistance of red brick lines in the production of Greater Cairo (Egypt) and Greater Khartoum.
Supervised by Eric DENIS (University of Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne - Geography - Cities) and Alice Franck (University of Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne – PRODIG)
Abstract:
Since the 1980s, Khartoum and Cairo have been in full expansion, both urban and demographic. However, the production sites of one of the most heavily used materials, red brick, are being questioned in both capitals (closures and abandonment of factories, relocation). This thesis proposes to study this apparent paradox through a critical materialist geography of the city and red brick lines. It focuses on tracking this construction material from the extraction of raw materials to the site starting from the assumption that this building material is a pertinent observation point for contemporary urban transformations (urban sprawl, verticalization, hardening, commercialization of space). It adopts an approach to urban, political and economic geography to show the interdependence between the different processes related to urbanization underway in these two capitals (sprawling, verticalization, hardening...) and those affecting the production and use sites of red brick.
- Mathilde TARIF, State, capital, identity. Deterioration and international constraints on urban development in Chad.
We thank the following for their support:
- The French National Research Agency (ANR) through the project "Africa of the 21st century: A continent in transformation" (AFRICAM)
- The Institute of African Studies and Africanist Research (IEEAS), Paris-Nanterre
- The European Research Council (ERC) through the project «Democracy and Political Economy in Sub-Saharan Africa» (DEMOSUB-ERC)
We thank the following for their financial support:
- The French National Agency for Research (ANR)
Authors
We thank all the people who took part in this collective work. In particular, we would like to thank those who were closely involved with us throughout the project:
- Dr. Fodé Diatto-Traoré (CNRS research fellow)
- Mme. Sarah Ndiaye (research assistant)
- Mme. Assia Bouhouchat, the team of assistants at the Centre for African Studies and Research in Nanterre (CERIA), as well as all the administrative staff.