Abstract: Frustrated by the fragmented scene of modern Morocco poetry, Moroccan poet and critic Muḥammad Bennīs pens the Bayān al-Kitāba in 1981 (“Manifesto of Writing”). The manifesto, which was published in Al-Thaqafa al-Jadida, a journal Bennīs co-founded in 1974, set forth a new concept of writing steeped in Morocco’s visual culture. Throughout…

Climate change and migration have a complex relationship, and Morocco presents an interesting case of intertwining environmental change, national development policies, and human mobilities. For her dissertation research, Rachael looks at the influence of social remittances, intangible non-material transfers across migrant connections, on climate ad…

Abstract:Southeast Morocco is known for its oases, dates, and diverse linguistic and cultural landscape shaped by Amazigh, Arab, African, Jewish, nomadic and agrarian exchanges. Today, this landscape is also frequently colored by watermelons and water shortages. Small-scale farmers are at the center of the changes—navigating water scarcity and mark…

This podcast presents work related to my first book project, The Suicide Archive: Reading Resistance in theWake of French Empire—which concludes with a chapter on suicide bombing, focused on Moroccanwriter and artist Mahi Binebine’s (b. 1959) novel Les Étoiles de Sidi Moumen (2010)—and a secondbook project, Narrative Subversions: Strange Voices in …

Abstract:Between the 1850s and 1950s, colonial schools called médersas combined elements of French and Islamic educational traditions. First created in Algeria in 1850, the schools spread to the West African colonies of Senegal, French Soudan (today Mali), and Mauritania. The place of Morocco in this history is the subject of this discussion. In th…

AbstractWhy does Marrakesh look the way that it does? The Red City is the topic of the forthcoming book by Dr. Abbey Stockstill, in which she discusses the medieval city’s relationship with its founding dynasties, the local landscape, and Berber politics in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. As the notion of what it meant to be “Berber” was being …

This podcast explores the Andalusian music tradition of Morocco, known as al-ala, through the written song collections, such as the famous Kunnash al-Ha'ik. By examining the literary record, embodied in around 40 handwritten manuscripts found in libraries across Europe and North Africa, we can come to understand the evolution of the repertoire over…

AbstractOn February 29, 1960, an earthquake leveled much of the southern Moroccan coastal city of Agadir. Over the next decade, a new Agadir would be built in an avant-garde brutalist architectural style, representing a concrete example of Morocco’s newly independent future. And yet, this future is haunted by the trauma and violence of the past, by…

Zajal, which flourished in 14th century Andalusia, is a genre of poetry composed in spoken Arabic—Moroccan Arabic/Darija in this case. The genre reemerged in postcolonial Morocco, when it was largely published in newspapers. The recent history of zajal may appear male dominated: the 1992 edition of Afaq, the Journal of the Moroccan Writer’s Union, …