Stories of Home, the Road, and the Host Country: Women Narrating Migration in Morocco
- Event type
- Conference
- Address
- Online
- Event dates
- Contact
- jenny.stubbs@sas.ac.uk 020 7862 8832
Image: By Nizar Akkaf, Rabat Morocco
Organiser: Keltouma Guerch (Mohamed I University, Oujda Morocco)
Judging by the late 20th and early 21st centuries movement realities, migration is no longer a choice nor is it an option among other options. It’s rather an economic, social, and political necessity. For millions of individuals and families around the world, migration is the ultimate survival decision and action. As a matter of fact, movement through unknown lands involves stories of home and the road.
Stories are our daily bread to communicate with others, express joys and sorrows, and survive trials and tribulations. Migrants’ stories help them share their experiences of the terrible journey and how they “survive” in the transit and/or destination countries. The geographic location of Morocco imposed a specific identity on the country as both a transit and destination land, hence, its notoriety as a place where migration plans and human trafficking are massively negotiated. Given the dramatic conditions in which movement from the southern to the northern coasts of the Mediterranean are carried out, migration tales are obviously not romantic ones. In this symposium participants share their scholarly work and research in the field of migration, particularly gendered migration, from different perspectives.
Programme
Panel One, 10.00 – 12.00 BST (Chair: Keltouma Guerch)
Abdellah El Boubekri (Mohamed I University, Oujda Morocco); “Unconsummated belonging in Laila Lalami’s The Other Americans (2019) and Conditional Citizens (2020).”
Wissam Bitari (Cadi Ayyad University, Marrakesh Morocco); “The Intersection of Diaspora and Postmodern realities in Laila Lalami’s The Other Americans.”
Tayeb Ghourdou (Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University, Fes Morocco); “Identity Construction between Home and Exile: A Comparative Analysis of Laila Lalami’s The Other Americans and Murja Kahf’s The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf.”
Brahim Elaouni (Mohamed I University, Oujda Morocco); “Space and Women Consciousness in the Writings of Lalami the Novelist and Lalami the Essayist.”
Panel Two, 14.00 – 16.00 BST (Chair: Abdellah El Boubekri)
Wissam Bitari (Cadi Ayyad University, Marrakesh Morocco); “The Intersection of Diaspora and Postmodern realities in Laila Lalami’s The Other Americans.”
Tayeb Ghourdou (Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University, Fes Morocco); “Identity Construction between Home and Exile: A Comparative Analysis of Laila Lalami’s The Other Americans and Murja Kahf’s The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf.”
Brahim Elaouni (Mohamed I University, Oujda Morocco); “Space and Women Consciousness in the Writings of Lalami the Novelist and Lalami the Essayist.”
Lunch Break: 12.00 – 14.00 BST
Panel Two, 14.00 – 16.00 BST (Chair: Abdellah El Boubekri)
Mimoune Daoudi (Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University, Fes Morocco); “Self-narration in Moroccan Women Diasporic Literature: Najat Elhachemi’s The Last Patriarch, as a case study.”
Zineb Rabouj (Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University, Fes Morocco); “Escaping to/from America: Roots and Routes in Anissa Bouziane’s Dune Song.”
Keltouma Guerch (Mohamed I University, Oujda Morocco); “Mothers and Daughters: Home, the Road, and the Host Country in the Narratives of Sub-Saharan Women Migrants Living in North-East Morocco.”
Fatima-Zohra Alaoui Mehrez (Mohamed I University, Oujda Morocco); “Narrating Sub-Saharan African Female Migrants’ Stories in Morocco.”
Zineb Rabouj (Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University, Fes Morocco); “Escaping to/from America: Roots and Routes in Anissa Bouziane’s Dune Song.”
Keltouma Guerch (Mohamed I University, Oujda Morocco); “Mothers and Daughters: Home, the Road, and the Host Country in the Narratives of Sub-Saharan Women Migrants Living in North-East Morocco.”
Fatima-Zohra Alaoui Mehrez (Mohamed I University, Oujda Morocco); “Narrating Sub-Saharan African Female Migrants’ Stories in Morocco.”
This symposium is organised as part of the CCWW Seminar Series 2021/22: ‘Precarious Homes – Narratives and Practices of Home-Making in Turbulent Times’ which takes its cue from the CCWW Conference "'Where are you from?' to 'Where shall we go together?' Re-imagining Home and Belonging in 21st-Century Women's Writing", hosted at the IMLR in September 2020. Dedicated to further exploration of literary and theoretical conceptualisations of home-making, the series considers women’s writing in context, using various formats - reading groups, a symposium, and an author/translator conversation.
Programme of events (pdf)
All are welcome to attend this free event at 10.00am BST on 11 June. You will need to register in advance to receive the online event joining link. Please click on the Book Now button below to register.
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