Culture and Society in Morocco
During the fall semester, starting in September, NIMAR offers an English-taught minor (30 EC), with a stress on social sciences and humanities. The programme offers training in ethnographic research skills in combination with a course on knowledge specifically related to Morocco, the Arab world and Africa with lectures and excursions by Moroccan academics. Students also study Moroccan Arabic or French. This minor includes an extended research period of five weeks during which students conduct their own qualitative research.
The programme
Case studies on Moroccan culture and society, with lectures by Moroccan and foreign academics in disciplines such as sociology, anthropology, history, and political science. Topics include ‘History’, ‘Civil Society and Politics’, ‘Cities and Countryside’, ‘Migration’, ‘Religion’ and, ‘Gender’. This course also includes excursions to various sites of cultural interest and social organisations in the surroundings of Rabat-Casablanca, and a five-day fieldwork trip to the rural south of Morocco.
A course “Methods of Qualitative Research”, which familiarizes students with different research methods such as (participant) observation, interviews, and working with focus groups. Weekly practical assignments for observations and interviews serve as preparations for the students’ own research projects; Including “Research Design”, which helps students to formulate step by step their own research projects.
Intensive language instruction in Moroccan Arabic or French, mostly focusses on verbal communication skills, including conversation classes.
An independent field research project during the last part of the term. Under supervision of a lecturer students do research and report on their research in a research paper. They may do this individually, or in small groups of two or three students.
The courses are taught by NIMAR faculty and by guest lecturers from Moroccan institutions. Cultural activities will be organised alongside the course curriculum, providing additional opportunities for students to enrich their experience and understanding of Moroccan society.
After completion of the programme students will have acquired a basic working knowledge of Moroccan Arabic and of social studies of Morocco, learned elementary ethnographic methods of doing fieldwork, put this knowledge into practice by having carried out their own field research and having analyzed and presented their data, both orally and in a written form. Students are actively encouraged to travel extensively to the various regions of Morocco during their stay in Rabat.
Maximum number of students: 40
Prospectus number: 5000MCSMN
Class number: 1021
Language: English