Credits
16
Prerequisites
None
Language of Study
Arabic
Courses taught in
English
Dates
Sep 7 – Dec 20
Program Countries
Morocco
Program Excursion Countries
Spain
Program Base
Rabat
Visa
Varies
Critical Global Issue of Study
Peace & Justice
Press enter to begin your search
Morocco
Human Rights, Social Justice, and Cultural Transformation
(Filling; Apply by May 15, 2026)
Examine challenges shaping Morocco and the Arab world since the 2011 Arab Spring. Learn about movements for human rights and social justice, and the cultural transformations that are emerging from them.
At a Glance
Overview
Why study abroad in Morocco?
The challenges and complexities of human rights, social justice, and cultural transformations in today’s Morocco are an outgrowth of the 2011 Arab Spring that took hold throughout North Africa. These uprisings against oppression and marginalization, and the cultural shifts that followed, have expanded the demands and repertoires of current struggles in Morocco. Modern movements have grown in visibility as the state, Islamists, and activists seek to define human rights and social justice on their own terms.
This program explores the present-day characteristics of the struggles for human rights and social justice within regional, national, and international contexts. We examine the resulting cultural transformations through a range of lenses including gender, individual liberties, globalization, and socioeconomic and political changes.
Excursions to the north and south of the country offer a view of the systems of power and privilege that have produced inequality and unjust environmental conditions, as well as the movements and organizations that have emerged in response. We engage with social economies that cross class and gender, including women-owned businesses producing local products and re-connecting their communities to the land and the environment, and local NGOs that are working collectively to create change.
Highlights
- Study human rights, migration, and social justice issues impacting Morocco and the rest of the Arab world
- Discuss issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion with Moroccan University students and get their perspectives
- Experience flamenco in Casa de la Memoria in Sevilla and Gnawa culture in Dar Gnawa in Tangiers
- Undertake an alternative touristic tour in Sevilla with the NGO Sevilla Negra
- Meet Amazighs, Jews, Arabs, and sub-Saharan Africans to understand Morocco's cultural diversity
- Learn about Dar Si Hmad’s system of harvesting and distributing water from fog to serve rural, landlocked Indigenous communities in the Anti-Atlas Mountains in southwest Morocco
- Choose six credits of Arabic language and one required seminar, or three credits of Arabic and two thematic seminars
- Undertake independent research projects or internships that connect theoretical frameworks to real-world issues facing Morocco
Prerequisites
There are no prerequisites; however, students with a background in French will find ample opportunity for French language practice while also learning both Moroccan and Modern Standard Arabic.
Excursions
Travel throughout Morocco is a key component of the program with visits to learn about the culture, people, human rights, NGOs, politics and varied geography of the country. Travel to Sevilla will enable a regional perspective on the crucial issues tackled by the program.
During these excursions, you will explore Morocco’s history, indigenous industries, social justice and development issues, religions, the impact of tourism, civil society, environmental challenges, and cultural diversity while meeting with Amazighs and Arabs. You will explore the ways in which heritage discourse has been depoliticized in both Spain and Morocco and how it distorts memory, obfuscates human rights and social justice, and occludes the problematics of coloniality, power, and privilege. You will have the opportunity to make observations and reflect on what you see through photographic essays, discussions with specialists, and mapping exercises.
Educational excursions will enable you to put your coursework in context and to practice new language skills with visits to markets, cultural sites, and music and theater performances.
Southern Excursion
In the southern towns of Marrakech, Agadir, and Essaouira, you will visit cooperatives and associations working on issues of empowerment, sustainable development, and the politics of identity with particular emphasis on Amazigh culture. In Marrakech, you will visit the Water Museum and consider the ways it deploys the official discourse on the environment.
This visit will constitute a point of entry into the study of climate justice and some key ideas related to innovative approaches to social justice such as terricideterracide, relatability, communality, autonomy, pluriversality, and re-existence.
As part of your exploration of human rights, social justice, and cultural transformations, you will visit Marrakech’s Museum of Intangible Culture to examine how heritage and oral traditions contribute to cultural identity and research. Additional activities during the Marrakech leg of the excursion include a visit to a historic Medersa (School) to reflect on educational transformations, an engagement with a local association supporting people with disabilities to discuss inclusion, and community-based justice initiatives. You will also enjoy a camel ride and gain insights into nomadic culture.
In Agadir, you will have the opportunity to learn about the innovative project of fog harvesting orchestrated by the Dar Si Hmad NGO. You will meet with scholars and activists engaged in the struggle for Amazigh culture. Furthermore, you will have the opportunity to enjoy an Amazigh concert.
In Essaouira, you will learn about the Jewish component of Moroccan history. You will visit an Aragan Oil NGO, and take part in a cooking lesson centered on local dishes.
Northern Excursion
Visit Sevilla, the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia with 500 years of Muslim history, where you will interact with Moroccan activists at Foundation Sevilla Acoge, which specializes in interculturality, human rights, and social justice for migrants. You will visit Alcazar and Giralda, two of the great architectural sites in Spain, study the rationale for the cultural transformations they witnessed over the years, and consider the ways cultural heritages are transformed into tourist attractions. You will also participate in a decolonial tour of Sevilla put together by the NGO Sevilla Negra, which undertakes conscious tourism that embraces historical memory from a decolonial perspective in Sevilla, and attend a Flamenco Concert.
In the northern Moroccan town of Tangier, you will visit NGOs working with sub-Saharan migrants and marginalized youth, and those dealing with gender identity. You will witness the impact of migration and remittances on urbanization and rural development. At Dar Gnawa, you will meet a monument of Gnawa, Muallam Abdellah El Gourd.
Please note that SIT will make every effort to maintain its programs as described. To respond to emergent situations, however, SIT may have to change or cancel programs.
Academics
Program Learning Outcomes
Upon successful completion of the program, students will be able to:
- Identify and describe the ethical and political implications of injustice, such as social problems, social stratification, the interdependence and intersection of systems of oppression, interpersonal and structural discrimination, and unequal distribution and access to power and resources (including natural resources).
- Critically analyze the intersection of migration and human rights.
- Understand and explain the complex formation of migrant identities through racial and gendered lenses.
- Articulate the gap between universal rights and grassroots realities in the Moroccan context with attention to issues of power, privilege, and marginalization.
- Evaluate the role of culture and art in expressing migrant experiences and fostering resistance.
- Synthesize contextual understanding, reflective analysis, theoretical frameworks, and methodological training to inform either the production of an Independent Study Project or an internship-based field project which engages with issues of human rights, migration, diversity, and social justice.
- Demonstrate increased proficiency in Arabic language reading, speaking and writing capacity.
Coursework
The following syllabi are representative of this program. Because courses develop and change over time to take advantage of dynamic learning opportunities, actual course content will vary from term to term.
The syllabi can be useful for students, faculty, and study abroad offices in assessing credit transfer. Read more about credit transfer.
Key Topics
- The interplay between authoritarianism and human rights in Morocco
- African and Euro-Mediterranean migration routes and global migration policies
- Tensions between secular and religious approaches to individual freedoms
- Migration, art, and resistance
- Struggles in areas such as women's rights, ethnicity, individual liberties, environmental rights, and state violence
- Migration and identity dynamics
- Key modes of articulation between human rights and social justice in Morocco
Human Rights, Social Justice, and Cultural Transformations
Human Rights, Social Justice, and Cultural Transformations
Human Rights, Social Justice, and Cultural Transformations – syllabus
(AFRS3000 / 3 credits)
This seminar offers students the opportunity to learn how historically situated and currently unfolding human rights and social justice are claimed and promoted in Morocco, and to increase their awareness, knowledge, and social justice advocacy. Through an intersectional lens drawing on the humanities, social sciences, and fine arts, the seminar engages critically with a range of injustices in a number of domains including gender, identity, individual liberties, class, the environment, land, etc. It seeks to develop a holistic understanding of human rights and social justice.
The seminar will explore the ways Morocco constitutes the ideal site to study the increasing visibility in the public sphere of the issues of human rights and social justice and their inscription on the agendas of social movements. Furthermore, it will demonstrate the ways human rights and social justice movements present a rich and diverse model in Morocco, one that reflects domestic, regional, and international influences. Finally, the seminar will discuss how 2011 uprisings and the cultural transformations that followed have played an important role in expanding the demands and the repertoires of struggles against different forms oppression and marginalization. The seminar engages Moroccan academics, artists, civil society activists, policy makers and students in debates on the development of a multicultural society in a political hybrid regime.
Arabic
Arabic
Beginning Modern Standard Arabic – syllabus
(ARAB1006-1506 / 6 credits)
Intermediate Modern Standard Arabic – syllabus
(ARAB2006-2506 / 6 credits)
Advanced Modern Standard Arabic – syllabus
(ARAB3006-3506 / 6 credits)
The language course is offered at different levels: Choose to take either two thematic seminars and a 3-credit language course OR the thematic seminar course, Human Rights, Social Justice, and Cultural Transformations, and a six-credit language course.
The language course emphasizes speaking, reading, and writing skills in Modern Standard Arabic through classroom and field instruction. Based on in-country evaluation, students are placed in intensive beginning or intermediate classes, with further language practice of spoken Moroccan Arabic (darija) in homestays, lectures, and field visits. Moroccan Arabic and Arabic calligraphy are also part of the course.
Arabic AND Migration and Human Rights
Arabic AND Migration and Human Rights
Beginning Modern Standard Arabic – syllabus
(ARAB1003-1503 / 3 credits)
Intermediate Modern Standard Arabic – syllabus
(ARAB2003-2503 / 3 credits)
Advanced Modern Standard Arabic – syllabus
(ARAB3003-3503 / 3 credits)
The language course is offered at different levels: Choose to take either two thematic seminars and a 3-credit language course OR the thematic seminar course, Human Rights, Social Justice, and Cultural Transformations, and a six-credit language course.
The language course emphasizes speaking, reading, and writing skills in Modern Standard Arabic through classroom and field instruction. Based on in-country evaluation, students are placed in intensive beginning or intermediate classes, with further language practice of spoken Moroccan Arabic (darija) in homestays, lectures, and field visits. Moroccan Arabic and Arabic calligraphy are also part of the course.
AND
Migration and Human Rights – syllabus
(MIGR-3500 / 3 credits)
This interdisciplinary seminar offers an in-depth exploration of migration and human rights, with a special focus on Morocco as a critical crossroads of African, European, and Middle Eastern migratory flows. Through the lens of Morocco’s unique geopolitical position, students examine the environmental, economic, and political forces shaping contemporary migration, analyzing how Morocco functions as a country of origin, transit, and increasingly as a destination. Students engage with the lived experiences of migrants and refugees by analyzing key issues such as racism, border regimes, and the reconstruction of identity in transit and diaspora.
Combining academic scholarship with real-world engagement, the seminar features guest lectures by local experts, artists, and activists, as well as field visits to NGOs and institutions in Morocco and Spain. Through five interconnected modules covering migration theories, identity reconstruction, racism and anti-Blackness, artistic expression, and Moroccan diaspora experiences, students develop analytical tools and critical perspectives needed to understand the complex realities of migration and human rights in a transnational context.
Research Methods and Ethics
Research Methods and Ethics
Research Methods and Ethics – syllabus
(ANTH3500 / 3 credits)
This course is designed to provide firsthand and experiential knowledge about the richness and challenges of conducting field study in Morocco. It provides the necessary conceptual and methodological thread that enables the student to learn from experience, to apply the knowledge and skills gained in language study and the thematic course, and to prepare the student to undertake field study in Morocco in strict observance of research procedure involving human subjects and the regulatory ethical norms defined by the Institutional Review Board. At the end of the course, the student should have the cultural understanding and the methodological tools to successfully complete their Independent Study Project. The course is also designed to answer specific concerns which the research on human rights, migration, and social justice generally raises. Social justice and human rights involve minority groups, former political prisoners, families of victims of torture, communities seeking environmental rights, policymakers, and international human rights organizations. The lectures address issues that pertain to research methods, confidentiality and anonymity of research participants, data gathering and interviewing, and the safety and psychology of minority groups and victims of repressive systems. Individual meetings are scheduled throughout the course and aim to address research objectives and the expectations of each student. RME also addresses key ethical issues pertaining to internship in the context of Morocco.
Independent Study Project or Internship
Independent Study Project or Internship
In addition to taking the above courses, students will also need to enroll in one of the following two courses:
Independent Study Project – syllabus
(ISPR3000 / 4 credits)
Conducted in Rabat or in another approved location appropriate to the project in Morocco. The Independent Study Project (ISP) offers students the opportunity to undertake significant, specific, and individualized independent study; students apply the concepts and skills of experience-based learning articulated and learned in all other program components. Although the ISP is largely conducted during the last four weeks of the program, considerable planning and preparation for the ISP is done throughout the term. The Research Methods and Ethics course addresses concepts and rationale, methods and techniques, and evaluation of field study, all designed to introduce the student to the general background of field study and to assist them with ISPs that will be of interest to them and relevant to the program theme. The actual fieldwork for the ISP begins with the ISP preparation sessions and individual sessions on resource search and identification of appropriate contacts and resources. Sample topic areas include: international and local nongovernmental human rights and social justice organizations in Morocco: cooperatives and activism; environmental and land rights; ; childbirth in rural Morocco; Gnawa music and racial dynamics; Amazigh identity rights; LGBTQ+ rights; art and cultural transformations, Sufi poetry; the politics of expression among women in rural Morocco; the culture of volunteering in Muslim countries; fiction and the Moroccan Jewish community.
Sample ISP topic areas:
- International and local nongovernmental human rights organizations in Morocco
- Inheritance rights and ijtihad
- Border externalization and human rights violations in European Union – Africa migration policies
- Intersectionality and the migration experiences of African women in Morocco
- Structural anti-Blackness in Moroccan migration governance
- Art as resistance: Visual storytelling and migrant narratives in Moroccan urban spaces
- The culture of volunteering in Muslim countries
- Fiction and the Moroccan Jewish community
- Human rights
- Environmental rights
- LGBTQ+ rights
- Land rights
- Rural development projects
- Multilingualism
- Political pluralism
- Rural schooling
- HIV/AIDS in Morocco
Browse this program’s Independent Study Projects / undergraduate research.
OR
Internship and Seminar – syllabus
(ITRN3000 / 4 credits)
This seminar consists of a four-week internship with a local community organization, research organization, business, or international NGO. The aim of the internship is to enable the student to gain valuable work experience and to enhance their skills in an international work environment. Students will complete an internship and submit a paper in which they process their learning experience on the job, analyze an issue important to the organization, and/or design a socially responsible solution to a problem identified by the organization. A focus will be on linking internship learning with the program’s critical global issue focus and overall program theme.
List of possible placements for Internship:
- Human Rights and Social Justice
- NGO Second Chance, Rabat
OJA (Organization of Young Africans), Tangier
Forum of Alternatives Morocco, Rabat - Rawabit Assadaka, Tangier
- Le Mediateur Human Rights, Rabat
- NGO Second Chance, Rabat
- Women’s rights
- 100 percent Mamans
- Association démocratique des Droits des Femmes
- Tawaza Women Rights Association, Tetouan
- Migrant rights
- Association pour la protection de l’enfance et la sensibilisation de la famille
- GADEM: Anti-Racism Group of Accompaniment and Research – Rabat: Accueil-GADEM
- DDM Delegation diocesan of migrations – Tangiers
- MZC (Mujeres en Zona de Conflicto) – Tangiers
- Cultural rights
- Azetta Network for Amazigh Cultural rights – Rabat
- Child protection against sexual abuse
- Protection of children living in the streets
- Association Bayti – Casablanca
- Anti Corruption
- Transparency Maroc Rabat
Housing
Rabat
You will live with a family for eight weeks in the medina of the capital, Rabat. The historic medina is characterized by Andalusian-style homes with secluded interior courtyards, arched doorways, and iconic blue and white exterior walls. Most residents know everyone in this tightly knit community, where you’ll quickly become part of neighborhood life.
The family is the center of life in Morocco. You’ll break bread with your host family twice a day as mealtimes are an integral part of the day. Spending time with your host family, you’ll become familiar with the sounds and gestures of Arabic as it is spoken in Morocco (darija).
Through your hosts, you will have a window into the daily life of Moroccans, accompanying members of your host family on regular activities such as shopping in the souk, sitting in cafés, and visiting the local bakery.
You’ll also have an opportunity to go to the public bath and cheer at a soccer match. You may even take part in a family wedding or newborn naming ceremony.
During your four-week ISP period, you may choose to continue living with your host family or receive a stipend to arrange your own accommodation.
Excursion & Orientation Accommodations
During excursions, accommodations include hostels, guesthouses or small hotels.
Career Paths
A diversity of students representing different colleges, universities, and majors study abroad on this program. Many of them have gone on to do amazing things that connect back to their experience abroad with SIT. Recent positions held by alumni of this program include:
-
Professor at Yale University, New Haven, CT
-
Global studies instructor at Maggie L. Walker Governor’s School for Government and International Studies, Richmond, VA
-
Managing editor of Fikra Forum at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Washington, DC
-
PhD candidate in international comparative education at Stanford University, Stanford, CA
-
PhD candidate studying Malhun music at the University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX
Faculty & Staff
Morocco: Human Rights, Social Justice, and Cultural Transformation
Taieb Belghazi, PhD
Academic Director
Ahlam Baoui
Program Assistant
Asmae El Laouzi, MA
Arabic Instructor
Mariam Bakkali, PhD
Founder and Director of LangZone
Discover the Possibilities
-
Cost & Scholarships
SIT Study Abroad is committed to ensuring that international education is within reach for all students. We believe in the transformative power of immersive, intercultural experiences and are dedicated to supporting students in their educational journey.
See All Costs -
HEALTH, ACCESS &
IDENTITYA critical step in preparing for your study abroad program is planning how you will maintain your health and wellbeing. Please review the following information carefully and contact [email protected] with any questions or concerns.
Learn More -
Visa
RequirementsDepending on your passport of origin, you may need a visa for this program. Please contact your admissions officer for more information.
-
SIT alum Mahnoor Haq provides media expertise to Balkan content creatorsRead more
SIT alum Mahnoor Haq shared her educational background, how her time with SIT Morocco impacted her professionally, and her work with World Learning.
-
Site visitors experience what makes SIT specialRead more
This site visit to Morocco was specifically designed for new international education professionals to give them a better understanding of SIT’s history and values and how we provide students with unique experiential learning through rigorous and immersive academics.