Tunis History

In January 2026, senior students and faculty from Barnard and Columbia—after taking the seminar Carthage and Africa Proconsularis in Fall 2025- came to Tunisia for an intensive, site-based study tour. The trip was designed as an extension of the course itself: students didn’t simply visit ruins; they returned to places they had already inhabited intellectually through texts, scholarship, and archaeological evidence. 

On January 10, 2026, we took a group of Barnard students where Tunis is at its most Tunis: the Medina—a living city of courtyards, workshops, minarets, and narrow streets that still carry the rhythms of centuries.

Warm thanks to Dowit for arranging the tour, and to journalist and public intellectual Hatem Bouriel, who served as our guide—bringing the Medina to life through stories and context.

Nine Columbia students enjoyed a guided tour of the Medina of Tunis, a UNESCO World Heritage Site dating back to 698 A.D.