Dr. Margaret Alexander, Professor Emeritus at the University of Iowa, and distinguished art historian who specialized in the study of Tunisian mosaics, died in December. Dr. Alexander was in Tunisia from the beginning of November until a few days before her death, as she continued to work on her Corpus of Mosaics, which had been her lifetime work. She had co-directed eight fascicules covering Utica, Thuburbo Majus and El Jem, and was working on the first fascicule devoted to the mosaics of Carthage. Dr. Alexander had first come to Tunisia as a graduate student in 1948. Dr. Alexander received the Order of Cultural Merit from the Government of Tunisia in October 1994.
Conference papers are in the process of being edited for publication.
The Graduate Student Organization, under the auspices of AIMS, is intended to bring together graduate students of Maghribi studies across disciplines. The organization seeks to bridge the gap between Middle East and African studies student groups, and to unite students with similar research interests. Student membership in AIMS will include membership in the graduate student organization. We are currently establishing a website for the organization that will contain information on grant and research opportunities, language programs and conferences on the Maghrib. The website will also contain links to Maghribi-related sites on the World Wide Web.