Scientific event

Dr. Djilali ELMESTARI is a Principal Research Associate at the Centre of Research in Social and Cultural Anthropology/ CRASC (Oran, Algeria). He holds a habilitation and a Ph.D. in Philosophy of Religion from the University of Oran. He held the position of Director of the Centre of Research in Social and Cultural Anthropology (2017- 2021), and the position of Director General of the National Institute for Research in Education/ INRE, Algeria (2016-2017).
El Mestari’s area of interest includes themes related to religious discourse, education and citizenship, and community issues.
He has participated in several international and national projects, including two ongoingresearch projects conducted by the CRASC: “The Production of Religious Knowledge in Official Religious Institutions: case of the University of Religious Sciences in Constantine” and “Textbooks of School Subjects Related to Social Sciences and Humanities (1963-2020)”.
In the last two years, he has been a Visiting Professor at the University of Padua, Italy: The International Master in Religion, Politics and Global Society.
Among his most important and recent scientific production:
- 2022. Coordinator with Khalid Rhazzali and Dafne Accoroni (from Italy) of the 95/96 issues of Insaniyat Journal on "Socioanthropology of Religion in the Mediterranean Region"
- 2022. Co-editor with Soraya Mouloudji of the collective book “Society and the Pandemic”,
Publisher: CRASC.
In addition to three research papers addressing themes of religious and educational discourse in Algeria:
- 2022. Co-author of “Youth and the Discourse of Religious Referents in Algeria. Results of Field Surveys”. Insaniyat, Part 1, No. 95
- 2022. “The Institutionalized Religious Discourse During the First Period of the Pandemic in Algeria”. Society and the Pandemic
- 2021. The Second Generation of Islamic Education Textbooks in Algeria: Contents and Challenges. Published by the Higher Islamic Council

Is a research director in social sciences, specializing in political philosophy. His work focuses on the study of elites, social transformations, and colonial history in Algeria. Throughout a distinguished academic career, he has led prominent institutional research projects, most notably the BASAC project (2023-2026) on social work in Oran, alongside studies on elites and women's political representation. His research combines the theoretical depth of philosophy with the sociological method to analyze and approach the mechanisms of cultural and political change in Algerian society.

Historian, researcher in the ‘Socio-anthropology of History and Memory (HistMém)’ division at CRASC (Oran) and deputy editor-in-chief of the journal Insaniyat.