"From assistance in applying for a visa to introductions to the academic community in Algeria, CEMA plays a critical role helping visiting scholars with research advice and useful contacts. In addition, its library resources, its series of talks and broader research gatherings including both Algerian and foreign scholars have made it a major center of intellectual exchange. Scholars of North Africa, from both inside and outside the region, are all extremely fortunate to be able to draw on the welcoming academic community that Robert Parks and Karim Ouaras have worked so hard to build."

“My doctoral research would not have been possible without the practical and intellectual support of Dr. Robert Parks and Dr. Karim Ouaras at CEMA. Not only have Bob and Karim helped me with the everyday ins-and-outs of conducting research in Algeria (i.e., obtaining research permits, connecting me with local scholars, providing information on local archives, etc.), they also absorbed me into the circle of world-class academics, scholars and artists who regularly frequent CEMA. For this reason, CEMA is a one-of-a-kind space of intellectual encounter in Algeria. Bob and Karim have carefully cultivated a culture of exchange and a laboratory for fresh ideas, knowledge, and curiosity in Algeria and beyond.”

“My PhD research in Algeria, which later became the basis for a book published in 2015 by Stanford University Press, would have been impossible if not for the logistical and intellectual support of CEMA. In the years since, the growing network of North Africans who have participated in its activities and US scholars who have emerged from CEMA fellowships have become one of the most valuable resources for my professional career."

“It would be difficult to exaggerate how much CEMA meant to work I have been able to do in Algeria—in terms both of research and ongoing collaborations with Algerian scholars and interlocutors—and for that of my graduate students. The CEMA “dream team” of Karim Ouaras and Bobby Parks has done similar things for so many others in recent years, making it possible for scholars based outside of the Maghreb to do work in Algeria, and also nurturing efforts by Algerian scholars to work with North American-based researchers. For me, this meant invaluable introductions to archives but also the possibility to come and speak (on multiple occasions) to a public audience in Oran about my work, people that came from different milieus and interests, but knew that CEMA brought things to town that were worth checking out. Bravo, CEMA.”