Morocco: Culture and Human Rights - A Public Leadership Perspective

Dates for WT2010: January 2-22, 2010

CPSP 379P/PUAF 359T/ 798T/UNIV 318P /CORE [D] (3 credits)

The course “Morocco: Cultural and Human Rights – A Public Leadership Perspective” will expose students to Morocco’s culture and human rights movement through the lens of public leadership. Students will explore changing Moroccan approaches to leadership, citizenship, and civic engagement in a society that is experiencing both an “Islamist Awakening” and a transition to democracy.  Visits with religious leaders, state officials, and nongovernmental organizations will allow students to engage directly with public leaders and to explore current issues in Moroccan society including:  religion, the roles and responsibilities of women, micro-finance, violence, youth, and poverty.

The course aims to help students understand Moroccan culture, grasp diverse movements and tensions in the society, and assess what might be learned from Morocco and applied to other parts of the world, including the United States.  Through living with host families, students will be fully immersed in Moroccan culture during their three weeks in the country.  Students will learn basic Arabic expressions to aid in forming relationships and addressing topics relevant to the course. These topics will be further explored through local field trips, community service, and dialogue with Moroccan students. Although primary residence will be in Rabat, students will travel to sites of cultural importance including Casablanca, Marrakech and Fes.

Itinerary

The itinerary includes survival Moroccan Arabic; lectures on topics such as women’s issues in Morocco, the political process, Moroccan civil society, human rights and democracy in Morocco, etc.; field trips to places like the Moroccan Parliament and the Moroccan Human Development Initiative; excursions and activities with Moroccan university students; community service activities with local NGOs; and weekend trips to Casablanca, Marrakech and Fes. Weekend excursions will be made by bus and include meals and hotel accommodations. These trips will include guided tours as well as the chance to interact with a NGO working with violence and poverty as well as a women’s collective. Students should be prepared for an exciting but rigorous trip that will expose them to Morocco’s culture and human rights movement through the lens of a public leadership perspective.

Accommodations

Students will be staying with Moroccan host families, who will provide all meals. During field studies to visit to other cities, students will stay in hotels and the meals will also be provided.

Faculty and Staff

Dr. David Crocker is the Director of the College Park Scholars Public Leadership Program and a Senior Research Scholar at the Institute for Philosophy and Public Policy and the School of Public Policy at the University of Maryland. He specializes in sociopolitical philosophy, international development ethics, transitional justice, democracy and democratization, and the ethics of consumption. His most recent book is Ethics of Global Development: Agency, Capability, and Deliberative Democracy (Cambridge University Press, 2008).

Stacy Kosko is the Associate Director of the College Park Scholars Public Leadership Program and a Ph.D. student in the Maryland School of Public Policy where she specializes in international development and human rights.