Program archives

Mongi Bahloul is an Associate Professor in the English Department, Faculty of Arts and Humanities, of the University of Sfax, Sfax, Tunisia. He holds a BA degree in English Language and Literature, an MA in Special Applications of Linguistics from the University of Birmingham, England (1998), and a Ph.D. in Literary and Cultural Studies from the Sorbonne (1986), and has completed post-doctoral work at the University of Chicago on a Senior Fulbright Scholarship (1995). He is a founding member and Secretary General of the Tunisian Society of British and American Studies.

Dr. Bahloul has held visiting professorships at Kemerovo State University (Russia), Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania, and Montclair State University in New Jersey. He has presented research on language education and related topics at conferences and colloquia in many parts of the world, and has written 67 articles and presentations on a wide range of subjects, including literature (from Chaucer, Shakespeare, Poe and F. Scott Fitzgerald, to analysis of "lonely-hearts" advertisements); linguistics; and English-language instruction. He has published on the Berbers in North Africa, "the Political Coloring of Islam", and the civic rights of women in Tunisia.

Dr. Bahloul has provided this synopsis of his presentation: "The idea of separating politics from religion is alien and irrelevant to most Muslims in the Arab world. Unlike Jesus, Prophet Muhammad was involved (from the very beginning) in political and military matters, and after his death these tasks were transferred to his companions. My presentation will look at the implications of this deep-seated theocratic belief in contemporary Islamic societies. It will be argued that the concept of Islamic governments is seen by the majority of Muslims, particularly in the Middle East, as the only way to reinstate the former glory of Islam and help the Umma (Nations of Islam) to regain hegemony over the West. The focus will be on North-African countries where social behavior and cultural thought seem to plead in favor of 'Political Islam' and advocat 'Islamization' as an antidote to 'globalization'."