The AIMS conference 2005, entitled The Growth of Cities in the Magreb over Time, will bring together researchers from North Africa and the USA to examine the question of the growth of North Africa’s cities in both contemporary and past contexts. It shall be held in Tunis at the Hotel Ambassadors on May 26-28. We shall undertake this broad question from chronological, sociological, geographic, and historic perspectives, among others. We especially seek contributions from urban planners and those who work in urban infrastructure and in public works.

We particularly seek individuals who can contribute on the following topics, among other possibilities:

• The City in Antiquity: how were Punic and Roman cities conceived & established; how did they grow and develop in their time?

• The City in Islam: how were new cities founded in early North African Islam? What was their relationship with the pre-existing urban hierarchy?

• Extension of military quarters, the growth of suburbs, and the extent of Maghrebi cities in the period before European colonization

• Planning and building the European city in the early colonial period

• The growth and subsequent transformation of European quarters of North African cities

• Urban planning and the growth of cities since independence

• Growth of small and medium-sized cities in the Maghreb today

• Urban infrastructure in today’s cities in Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia How are the big cities of the Maghreb governed today?