Morocco: Changes & Identities [CourseID: 10309]

The course examines the major social, cultural, political, intellectual, and human rights transformations in Morocco over the last four decades, stressing the undergoing tensions between the secular liberals and conservatives (especially Islamists) across gender, religion, language, and sexual politics. It also explores changing identities and the complexity of Moroccan cultural politics. It is based on a balanced combination of the exploration of major academic scholarship from a comparativist and multi-disciplinary perspective, and insight into the lives and experiences of Moroccans, with particular focus on the inhabitants of Fez and the region. Above all, it traces the blended trajectories and trends in Moroccan society and culture, stressing the pressuring challenges to Moroccan national identities posed by globalization, secularism, conservatism, and fundamentalism.