The historical investigation of colonial Morocco outside the bounds of formal political structures has been a relatively new field of research. Following Moroccan independence, nationalist writers looked to decolonize their own history by casting the Protectorate period as ephemeral parentheses that only momentarily interrupted the historical arc of the Moroccan people. Until quite recently, the colonial period was considered “a time of deviation, a kind of historical ‘mistake’…not especially worthy of study.” At the same time, European history-writing has privileged studies of neighboring Algeria, in part because Morocco experienced a more peaceful transition to independence and that process did less to test the political structure of metropolitan France. This workshop seeks to bring together scholars from different disciplines whose approaches suggest new ways of thinking about colonial Morocco (both the Spanish and French zones). Our goal is to promote a reassessment of the impact and meaning of the colonial period through analyses of, among other things, the environment, gender relations and the intersection of gender with other axes of power such as race, class/prestige and sexuality, spatial-architectural boundaries, medical and educational epistemologies and projects, the politics of the body, rural colonial Morocco.
Applicants are requested to send an abstract of 300 words and a short bio to Etty Terem tereme@rhodes.edu no later than March 12. Abstracts should be in English, though papers may be submitted in English, French, Spanish, or Arabic.
Organizing Committee:
Etty Terem: tereme@rhodes.edu
Eric Calderwood: ecalderw@illinois.edu
Itzea Goicolea-Amiano: itzea.goikolea@gmail.com
Adam Guerin: amgguerin@gmail.com