Moroccan Cultural Studies: A New beginning
Sabry, T., Bahmad, J. and Eddouada, S. 2025. Moroccan Cultural Studies: A New beginning. Middle East Journal of Culture and Communication. 18 (2), p. 205–222. https://doi.org/10.1163/18739865-01802003
| Title | Moroccan Cultural Studies: A New beginning |
|---|---|
| Type | Journal article |
| Authors | Sabry, T., Bahmad, J. and Eddouada, S. |
| Abstract | This article provides a critical exploration of the challenges of grounding MCS in Moroccan academia. Drawing on their different experiences as teachers and researchers, the authors question the institutional and epistemological constraints that lie behind the historical marginalisation of cultural studies in the Moroccan university system. These constraints range from Eurocentric curricula, a bureaucratic inertia that has resisted innovation and interdisciplinarity, and the instrumentalization of English as primarily a language rather than a vehicle of thought and new interdisciplinary formations like cultural studies. The authors offer a critical reflection on the Moroccan university as an epistemic battlefield where the production of knowledge must be geared towards local languages, subaltern histories (including gender politics), and cultural forms without capitulating to nationalist or essentialist closures. Taking their cue from Moroccan sociologist Abdelkabir Khatibi, the authors advocate for a new pedagogy based on a critical reflexivity that foregrounds the politics of knowledge production and the situatedness of the academic subject. The article proposes for the new Moroccan cultural studies to act as a space of intellectual and political experimentation by urging MCS practitioners to embrace historicisation, incompleteness and inter-disciplinarity as foundations for their methodological explorations and practice. |
| Keywords | Moroccan cultural studies |
| modernness | |
| thought | |
| double-critique | |
| gender politics | |
| language | |
| Journal | Middle East Journal of Culture and Communication |
| Journal citation | 18 (2), p. 205–222 |
| ISSN | 1873-9865 |
| 1873-9857 | |
| Year | 2025 |
| Publisher | Brill |
| Accepted author manuscript | File Access Level Open (open metadata and files) |
| Digital Object Identifier (DOI) | https://doi.org/10.1163/18739865-01802003 |
| Web address (URL) | https://brill.com/view/journals/mjcc/mjcc-overview.xml |
| Publication dates | |
| Published | 11 Sep 2025 |