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. Below is the full schedule of events.
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.
- Monday, October 19: "Morocco in Spain" Conference begins at 9:30 AM at the SOF/Heyman Center for the Humanities, Second Floor. Full program details and registration here.
- Tuesday, October 20: Book Reading at Casa Hispánica (no registration required) from 1:30 to 2:30 PM. The presentation will celebrate the publication of the English translation of Mohamed El Morabet’s Un solar abandonado (Editorial Sitara, 2018). Lunch will follow. At 3:00 PM, the organizers will lead a library visit to consult and discuss selected materials from Edward Said’s library and archive, held by Columbia’s Rare Book and Manuscript Library, along with additional materials related to Orientalism. Led by Carlos Cañete. Space is limited; register here.
- Thursday, October 22: "AlterMagreb y los nuevos imaginarios que navegan el mar entre España y Marruecos", a public conversation at John Jay College, part of the Feria Internacional del Libro de la Ciudad de NY (FILNYC). At 3:30 PM, the organizers will take part in a tour of the exhibition “Orientalism: Between Fact and Fantasy" led by the curators at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Space is limited to 15 participants; register here.
About AlterMagreb:
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.
