200
Morocco: Changes and Cultural Identity The course examines the major social, cultural, intellectual, and human rights transformations in Morocco over the last four decades, stressing the undergoing tensions between the secular liberals and conservatives (especially Islamists) across gender, religion, language, and sexual politics all within a context of democratization. It also explores changing identities and the complexity of Moroccan cultural politics. It is based on a balanced combination of the exploration of major academic scholarship from a comparative new academic outlooks and multi-disciplinary perspectives, along with an insight into the lives and experiences of Moroccans. Above all, it traces the blended trajectories and trends in Moroccan society and culture, stressing the pressuring challenges to Moroccan national identities posed by globalization, attempts at democratization, secularism, conservatism, and fundamentalism. This course is also designed to understand male-female dynamics, sexual politics, youth culture, and ethnicities in literature, philosophy, anthropology, popular culture, politics, religion, human rights, and sociology.