Online Event in English without translation. Questions and contributions to the discussion following the lecture can also be asked in Arabic, we will translate to the best of our ability.
Admission free, please register here: registration (link)
In a time when global conversations around decolonization, migration, and cultural representation are more urgent than ever, how can literature challenge long-standing narratives—and help build more just and inclusive ones?
Join us online for the upcoming Ibn Rushd Lecture with Moroccan scholar Dr. Sadik Rddad, as he draws from his recent book Dis-orienting the Maghreb: Morocco in British and American Travel Writing. Dr. Rddad will explore how Anglo-American travel literature from the late 19th and early 20th centuries shaped imperial narratives about Morocco, but that it is a space of ideological and national conflict, especially among competing colonial powers with stakes in modernising Morocco.
From this perspective, Rddad critiques Edward Said’s classical approach to Orientalism for its overlooking of the internal contradictions and variations within Western discourse itself. Rddad shows that British and American travel texts often reflected a persistent tension between ostensible admiration for Moroccan culture and a more latent current of paternalism and superiority. While some travellers portrayed Morocco as a static entity frozen outside of time, others acknowledged signs of resistance to colonialism and cultural resilience. According to Rddad, these shifts were not only driven by changes in colonial power but were also influenced by the writer’s gender, national identity and position within the imperial system.
Rddad calls for a renewed reading of travel literature—not as a mere reflection of domination, but as a site of struggle and cultural dialogue. Through four key paradigms (nationalist, secular, internationalist, and imperial), he offers a nuanced reading of the ways Morocco was imagined beyond the dominant lens of Middle East and Orientalism.
The lecture will also discuss how colonial-era representations continue to echo in today’s literature, media, and academic discourse, thwarting intercultural understanding, academic responsibility, and the construction of global narratives.
Dr. Lahoucine Aammari will respond to Dr. Rddad’s presentation, offering additional perspectives grounded in his expertise on travel writing, Anglo-Moroccan relations, and postcolonial literature.
About the speakers
Dr. Sadik Rddad is a Professor of English and Cultural Studies at Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University in Fez. His teaching and research focus on Cultural Studies, Postcolonial Studies, and Sufism. He has published extensively in these areas and is a recipient of the Joint-Supervision Doctorate Grant from the Moroccan-American Commission for Educational and Cultural Exchange (Fulbright). Dr. Rddad is also a founding member of the Moroccan Cultural Studies Center and the Moroccan Cultural Studies Center and the Moroccan Cultural Studies Journal
Dr. Lahoucine Aammari is an Associate Professor of English and Cultural Studies at Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University in Fez. His research interests include travel writing, Moroccan ethnicities, Anglo-Moroccan relations, and postcolonial literature. Dr. Aammari is co-editor of Mirrors of Morocco: Cultural Encounters in Travel Texts (2023), and associate editor of the Journal of Amazigh Studies. He also serves as book review co-editor for the Tamazgha Studies Journal. His forthcoming monograph, British Travel Accounts on Morocco, 1856–1937: Discursive Encounters, is to be published by Liverpool University Press.
Curated and presented by Dr. Amany Alsiefy (Ibn Rushd Fund)
Date: July 30
Time: 7:00 PM (Online)
Language: English (Questions and comments welcome in English or Arabic)
Admission free, please register here: registration (link)