In addition to taking the above courses, students will also need to enroll in one of the following two courses:
Independent Study Project
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 organizations in Morocco: cooperation and activism; inheritance rights and Itjihad in Morocco’s modern society; childbirth in rural Morocco; Sufi poetry; the politics of expression among women in rural Morocco; the culture of volunteering in Muslim countries; code-switching and multilingualism in Moroccan music; fiction and the Moroccan Jewish community.
Sample ISP topic areas:
- International and local nongovernmental human rights organizations in Morocco
- Inheritance rights and ijtihad
- The culture of volunteering in Muslim countries
- Fiction and the Moroccan Jewish community
- Human rights
- Islam in daily life
- Women’s issues
- Moroccan music and architecture
- The Arab Spring
- Cultural importance of cooking
- Informal economy
- Rural development projects
- Multilingualism
- Political pluralism
- Nongovernmental organizations in Morocco
- Rural schooling
- HIV/AIDS in Morocco
- Social organization among tanners
- The Sahara question
- Moroccan views of the outside world
Browse this program’s Independent Study Projects / undergraduate research.
OR
Internship and Seminar
Internship and Seminar – syllabus
(ITRN300 / 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
- Association Marocaine des Droits Humains
- Association Ouled Mimoun – Agadir
- Social Economy Network – Tiznit
- Organisation Marocaine des Droits Humain
- Rawabit Assadaka – Tangier
- Manos Solidaria – Tetouan
- Le Mediateur Human Rights – Rabat
- Women’s rights
- Ligue démocratique des Droits des Femmes
- Forum Azzahra for Moroccan Women
- Tawaza Women Rights Association – Tetouan
- Migrant’s rights
- Orient Occident Foundation – Rabat
- Plateforme des Associations et Communautes Subsahariennes au Maroc (ASCOMS) (Platform of Sub-saharan Associations and Communities in Morocco)
- Cultural rights
- Azetta Network for Amazigh Cultural rights – Rabat
- Child protection against sexual abuse
- Protection of children living in the streets
- Anti Corruption
- Local development and information technology