About this Event
If you are a Columbia/Barnard affiliate with campus access, please use your Columbia/Barnard email when registering.
Each attendee must have their OWN registration and email address.
Registration for external guests closes at 4PM on October 16. Registration will automatically close for outside guests at that time. Columbia/Barnard affiliates may register at the door.
AlterMagreb Description:
The Spanish Ministry of Science funded project, AlterMagreb in collaboration with the Hispanic Institute, the Society of Fellows and Heyman Center for the Humanities, and other units at Columbia University and in New York City have organized a week of academic and cultural activities focused on the relations and representations between Morocco and Spain.
AlterMagreb is a four-year project (2023-2027) funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and led by Carlos Cañete, Tenured Senior Researcher at the Spanish National Research Council and former Edward W. Said Fellow at Columbia’s Society of Fellows and Heyman Center for the Humanities and Gonzalo Fernández Parrilla, Associate Professor at the Autonomous University of Madrid. The project explores innovative ways of representing the relations between the societies of the Iberian Peninsula and North Africa, aiming to move beyond the rigid forms of identity—particularly national frameworks and colonial legacies—that still shape historical and academic imaginaries. To this end, AlterMagreb draws particular inspiration from the new forms of representing relations between the Iberian Peninsula and North Africa that have emerged in literature and the arts over recent decades, especially in the works by authors and artists of Moroccan origin. It also proposes a series of initiatives that combine academic and cultural activities to explore these new ways of representing identities and relations across the Strait of Gibraltar and bring them to a broader public.
Conference Description
Historical relations between Spain and Morocco span many centuries and encompass differing attitudes, from intense rivalry and mutual suspicion to cooperation and even fraternity. This ambivalence stems from the distortions imposed by colonial imaginaries on the complex and rich relations between societies across the Strait of Gibraltar. During this conference, participants will explore new ways of representing these relations, focusing especially on how Moroccan migration in Spain has produced multiple, overlapping identities that defy any conventional or national framework of representation.
9:30-10:15: Coffee and pastries
10:15-10:30: Welcome: Carlos Cañete and Seth Kimmel
10:30-12:30: Panel 1 - Dislocating Nations
Yasmina Aidi (Tulane University): “Smoke on the Water: A Spanish-Moroccan Cultural History of Cannabis in the Strait of Gibraltar"
Brahim El Guabli (Williams College): "Tamazgha Remaps Africa: Reflections on the Scholarly Potential of Amazigh Indigeneity"
Pier Mattia Tommasino (moderator)
12:30-2:00: Lunch
2:00-4:00: Panel 2 - Historical and Literary Crossovers
Eric Calderwood (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign): “The Girl from Tetouan: Amina Loh and the Margins of Moroccan Culture”
Abigail Balbale (New York University): "The Almohads in/of Spain"
Alessandra Ciucci (moderator)
4:00-4:15: Coffee break
4:15-5:00: Concluding conversation, with Arnau Sala Sallent
Please email [email protected] to request disability accommodations. Advance notice is necessary to arrange for some accessibility needs. This event will be recorded. By being present, you consent to the SOF/Heyman using such video for promotional purposes.
Event venue
Heyman Center for the Humanities, East Campus Residence Hall, New York, United States
Concerts, fests, parties, meetups — all the happenings, one place.