Colette Apelian, Ph. D.

The short essay contains excerpts from a current research direction. Its subject matter may also be classified under the somewhat pejorative or ethnocentric keywords magic, superstition, ritual, and belief. It touches upon themes found in texts on slaves, music, Africa, and North Africa. The terms illustrate how the selection below is the basis for a longer text that continues conversations started by Michael D. Bailey (2015), Vincent Crapanzano (1973), and Viviana Pâques (1991), and among others who write about European and African pre or tangential Judeo-Christian belief systems and their current social significances. Some of the practices below are strikingly similar to folk beliefs in the African diaspora.

NB: by "chicanery," I refer to Morocco's record of corruption and lack of oversight and enforcement of its laws, which could use reinforcement.

On nearly the eve of hosting the twenty second Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP 22) in Marrakesh on November 7-18, 2016, the Moroccan government authorized a new group of constructions in the Bou Regreg River Valley. The constructions include a Zaha Hadid Ateliers designed theater, the Grand Théâtre de Rabat, in addition to luxury hotels, residences, a museum, and a park. The theater and park will join the Aga Khan award winning Zaha Hadid Ateliers Bridge to Salé, a city across the river and just north of the worksite. Signs around the construction state that the complex will add to the appeal of Rabat as a city of culture. The buildings are placed in what might be considered a floodplain with the same or similar characteristics of nearby Northern Moroccan Ramsar designated wetlands and classified National Parks and Reserves, some of the former of which are on the tentative list for United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Status. The Zaha Hadid Ateliers construction is also placed in close proximity to sites with significant historical and cultural value recognized in the UNESCO classification documents for Rabat, among others. 

In the following paper, I present briefly the socio-environmental histories of the construction and adjacent sites in the Rabat-Salé-Zemmour-Zaër region and propose how accentuating certain aspects of the environment can be valuable additions to the contemporary Moroccan economy, specifically its two pillars of tourism and agricultural production and exports.

IASTE 2016 Online Program Poster: http://iaste.berkeley.edu/iaste/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/2016/05/IASTE2016_Poster.pdf

UMI, ProQuest ® Dissertations & Theses. The world's most comprehensive collection of dissertations and theses. Learn more... ProQuest, Negotiating the city: Conserving Fez, Morocco during the French Protectorate (1912--1956). ...

Samples of a larger collection are

in Linkedin "Posts" and "Articles" at LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/coletteapelian/

videos at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCS5NmDl8G6_-EOPS4jejdSQ/videos

Most of my work is not ye published

Sold through Amazon Kindle www.amazon.com and at https://gum.co/YDhSH

The manuscript documents in pictures and a short introductory text the visual cultures of Tunisian cities from November 14 to 22, 2013. Included are Tunis, La Goulette, Le Kram, La Marsa, Sidi Bou Said, Carthage, Sousse, Kairouan, and Sfax. The manuscript is illustrated with the author’s color photographs that record the renaissance of street art and its context during November 2013. As a photographic essay illustrating the relationship between visual cultures and the public sphere, it is arranged as companion to political and sociological analysis of the Arab Spring, its aftermath, and practices of a civil society in post-revolution Tunisia. Photographic documentation is inspired by approaches to visual cultures and literacy.

The manuscript has an approximately 8,500 word introduction and is 230 pages long. It includes hundreds of color images published for the first time.

The images form a photo documentary of the murals, stencils, and graffiti painted on the highway supports near Avenue Habib Bourguiba in Tunis, Tunisia (November 2013).

Pride of Place: Grassroots Expressions of Nationalism in Moroccan Cities 2014-15. The Visual Vocabularies of Vehicle Decoration in Morocco is a social history of the Moroccan road. It contains case studies describing how the transportation network in Morocco is lived and functions, and, thus, is a social space and display case of innovative design and modes of communication. It is built upon over four years of primary research, including discussions with truck drivers and chauffeurs of other vehicles for hire. Sections contain considerations of vehicle design and the visual vocabularies of Moroccan popular and fine arts today. 

Additional topics addressed include free speech, alternative viewpoints to Arab Uprising ideologies, and perceptions of economic globalization in an era of Morocco's Free Trade Agreements with the United States, among other nations.

Material partially presented in two conference papers:

Pride of Place: Grassroots Expressions of Nationalism in Moroccan Cities, 2014-15, Theorizing Rebellion and Repression in the Arab World Panel, Politics of the Middle East Section, Midwest Political Science Association (MPSA) Conference, Chicago, IL, USA (April 3 to 6, 2014) http://www.mpsanet.org/Portals/0/MPSA2015_ConferenceProgram_3-4-15.pdf

and

Stickers and Eyelashes: Automobile Decoration in Moroccan Cities, Expressing the Modern in the Maghreb Panel, Middle East Studies Association (MESA) Conference, Washington, D.C., USA (November 24, 2014)

Keywords: nationalism, Morocco, contemporary, taxi, truck, Mercedes, automobilia, visual culture, cultures, visual economy, literacy, economies, transports, economic, political, stability, Mitsubishi, Renault, Dacia, Fiat, Ford, Hyundai, trucks, Honda, Sahel, development, economy, social space, car culture, taxi, truck

The essay contains excerpts from a “The Geography and Visual Language of Protest: Rabat, Morocco 2012-13,” Civil Society and the Arab Spring panel, Midwest Political Science Association (MPSA) Conference, Chicago, IL, USA (April 3 to 6, 2014).

Also available in العربية
March 23, 2017

"In mid-March, the Moroccan King Mohammed VI invoked Article Forty-Seven of the 2011 Constitution to remove President Abelilah Benkirane from his post. The king asked the career politician from relatively modest means in Rabat-Salé to step down despite appointing him for a second term, his party winning the popular vote, and the king’s commitment to democratic reforms during Morocco’s 2011 Arab Spring. The purpose was to remove an impediment to the Justice and Development Party’s (PJD) negotiations of a coalition government. However, questions remain over why the monarch did not employ a tactic that might be perceived abroad and at home to be less of an affront to democratic ideals. In this analysis, I seek answers in the internal circumstances and forces surrounding the event and examine the likelihood of Morocco remaining a stable partner in an unstable region...".

For the rest of the article, please point your browser to http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/fikraforum/view/a-change-of-power-morocco-after-benkiranes-ouster

On the Ides of March, the Moroccan King Mohammed VI for the first time exercised his right in Article Forty-Seven of the 2011 Constitution to remove the President of the Government, Prime Minister Abelilah Benkirane. Some answers regarding why may be found in an analysis of internal circumstances and forces surrounding King Mohammed VI’s March 2017 actions. The analysis can also shed light upon the likelihood of Morocco remaining a stable partner in a region nearly bereft of others.

Finally, this is an early (2017) analysis of Aziz Akhanouch, the current Prime Minister of Morocco.

By the way, I'm fairly certain the image is a reference to a Moroccan colloquial expression and use of "Muhammed," "Si Muhammed" or "Simo" with the mIm being short hand for either. Therefore, the photograph image text can be read as "Grind it/him, Si Muhammed," which is quite Moroccan colloquial Arabic.

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/activity-6908105553520795648-FELg

Brief essay and a few examples from the Moroccan elections during fall 2015. The essay and images are drawn from my research published in a book about vehicle art in Morocco, _Pride of Place_. The essay references ongoing research on street and protest art in Morocco first presented at a 2014 MPSA conference: “The Geography and Visual Language of Protest: Rabat, Morocco 2012-13,” Civil Society and the Arab Spring panel, Midwest Political Science Association (MPSA) Conference, Chicago, IL, USA (April 3 to 6, 2014).

“Casablanca, Morocco”; Digital Governance in Municipalities Worldwide (2009): A Longitudinal Assessment of Municipal Websites throughout the World, E-Governance Institute, School of Public Affairs and Administration, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, NJ, USA

“Casablanca, Morocco and Tunis, Tunisia analysis”; Digital Governance in Municipalities Worldwide (2007): A Longitudinal Assessment of Municipal Websites throughout the World, E-Governance Institute, School of Public Affairs and Administration, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, NJ, USA

Modern Media and Contemporary Culture Panel

Andrea Shaheen, U Arizona–“Turathing” the Present: ‘Arada Bands in Damascus, Syria

Gizem Zencirci, Amherst Col–Abstract Intimacies: New Media Technologies and
Charity Organizations in Turkey

Rebecca Joubin, Davidson Col–Embattled Masculinity: Prison and Marriage Metaphors in Early Syrian Television Drama, 1960s-1970s

Colette D. Apelian, Berkeley City Col–Locating Culture: What the Morocco
Mall Says about Moroccan Identity Today

Denes Gazsi, U Iowa–“Arabs of the Coast and Islands” on Social Media: Signs of
Life from Neglected Huwala Arabs in Iran’s Gulf Region?

Andrea L. Stanton, U Denver–The BBC and Its Children: Palestinian and
Egyptian Broadcasting in the Middle East, 1934-49

See the program listing from the 2012 Middle East Studies Association Conference at
http://cmes.fas.harvard.edu/files/cmes/files/mesa_program_harvard_affiliates_12.pdf

_Shopping in Morocco: the Art of the Plastic Bag_ is about single-use (single use) plastic bags in Morocco.

The book illustrates the socio-cultural practices of consumption, advertising, and inhabiting Moroccan city streets, particularly Rabat. 

It offers insights into how Moroccan cities have been turned into moving art displays with persons transporting the plastic bags and objects as they commute. 

It presents a documentation of publicity and its aesthetics in contemporary Moroccan urban spaces and their economies.

The author acknowledges the critique of bag overuse and pollution, yet also ask the reader to consider the artistic and social value of the objects and artifacts, and what they say about globalization and cosmopolitanism in this part of North Africa today. 

Photographs allow readers to glimpse ways cityscapes may be altered when the bags are banned in 2016.

They also suggest what consumer concerns may need to be addressed for Morocco to transition from plastic to another material for its carryalls.

Shopping in Morocco: the Art of the Plastic Bag is among Dr. Apelian’s first publications that blend anthropological, sociological, visual studies, and art historical approaches to her investigations of the visual cultures and economies of contemporary Morocco she has researched and developed especially since 2011. It suggests a future gallery or museum exposition project(s) and/or short film(s).

The book is for sale through https://gumroad.com/capelian/

Facebook website: https://www.facebook.com/ShoppingInMorocco

YouTube:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCS5NmDl8G6_-EOPS4jejdSQ

Keywords: #environment #COP22 #plastic #single-use #bags #art #design #contemporary #visualculture #Morocco #Rabat #Recycling #Repurposing

Bay House Publications 2015
Rabat and Los Angeles

Brief analysis of the contemporary Moroccan art exhibit of Tetouan School artists in the context of the discourses on #worldart and #contemporaryart, in general.

NOTE: updated version is posted at https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/science-society-museum-inside-world-faouzi-laatiris-apelian-ph-d-?trk=mp-author-card

An essay on life of renown pioneer in Moroccan modern and contemporary art, especially printing techniques, Malika Agueznay
http://www.fondationona.ma/fr/index.php
Publication of “A life’s experience ” in Malika Agueznay. Rabat : Fondation ONA et Fondation CDG, 2014. The catalogue was created on the occassion of the exposition Hommage: Malika Agueznay at the Villa des Arts in Rabat and Casablanca and the Espace de la Fondation CDG (Caisse de dépôt et de gestion) in Rabat, Morocco (February 2015)

Review of  “The Spectacular Art of Jean-Léon Gérôme” (June 15-September 12, 2010) at the Getty Center in Los Angeles, California, USA http://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/gerome/  .

Keywords: Orientalist art painting photography  Colette Apelian Los Angeles

Review of the "Medieval Morocco" exhibition at the Mohammed VI Museum for Modern and Contemporary Art in Rabat, Morocco. The exposition includes objects from “Medieval Morocco: an empire from Africa to Spain” (“Le Maroc medieval: un empire de l’Afrique à l’Espagne”) at the Louvre, Paris, France from October 17, 2014 to January 9, 2015

It is not often that one sees on the African continent a large sized retrospective of an European artist, including one influenced by African art. For that reason, the exposition of the Swiss born, Italian speaking, and France residing Alberto Giacometti (1901-1966) at the Museum of Mohammed VI for Modern and Contemporary Art (MMVI) can be considered groundbreaking.

The retrospective opened by Princess Lalla Salma and from 20 April to 4 September, 2016 is sponsored by the French Institute the Moroccan National Foundation of Museums (FNM), Dior, the Moroccan magazine of contemporary art, diptych, and the Giacometti Foundation, among others. It has nearly a hundred pieces in a room named after Farid Belkahia, one of the founding fathers of Moroccan modern art. The works in the Giacometti exposition include approximately forty-six of the artist’s sculptures in plaster, stone, and bronze; and nearly fifty drawings, paintings, and prints. Some sculptures are said to reflect Giacometti’s association with existentialists, according to exhibition materials. They include the bronze Walking Man I (1960), one of a series of six, and his bronze Three Walking Men (1949), one of which is also at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

The exposition spans approximately forty years of the artist’s career. Narratives in the wall texts depict his beginning with relatively impressionistic to realistic representations of landscapes and the human form, especially heads. We then follow his obsession with pure forms in space, like Suspended Ball (1930-31), and the human body rendered in smooth lines like Woman Who Walks I (1932) or highly textured bronze surfaces as in The Cage, First Version (1949-50) stretched to the point of being nearly two dimensional. His sculptures after the mid to late 1920s can be characterized as impressionist to expressive and stylized, showing a fascination with repetitive movement that almost calls to mind the Futurists, though Giacometti is usually associated with the Cubist and Surrealist movement in the art history discourse. Portraits of family and friends, landscapes, and the human form were his lifelong passion, as were materials used in sculpture since ancient times, such as stone and bronze.

Perhaps what makes the MMVI show distinct from other Giacometti displays in European and United States museums are items that reveal how the artist conceived and created. They include photographs that show his atelier and the raw materials he used. There are cartoon ruminations and representations of heads on repurposed papers that are likely treasures from the foundation archives. While one reads often about Giacometti’s fascination with rendering the human head, the exposition offers a rare moment to see how he thought through the process. The photographs, some by Robert Doisneau, also suggest the role of his atelier as a meeting point for philosophers and writers, such as Jean-Paul Satre and Simone de Beauvoir, among others. During the heyday of the Surrealist movement, Giacometti associated with its luminaries, like Jean Cocteau and André Breton. Picasso was another acquaintance.

The selections of Giacometti’s oeuvre depict his artistic voyage. We begin with the relatively more realistic depictions during the 1920s to elongated and smooth Cycladic like figures in 30s (Femme qui marche II [1932]); geometric shapes in space during the 20s, much like the Cubists; forms influenced by African, American Indian, early Christian, and Ancient Egyptian funerary art during the 30s to 50s, especially African shields and Dogon statues. The tiny figurines remind me of fertility fetishes, much like the Paleolithic Venus of Willendorf. His influences include African masks and Ancient Egyptian figures and figurines. Some objects bear the imprint of the Cubists while others, Giacometti’s interest in ancient art, such as early Bronze Age Grecian statues. Delacroix is mentioned in the wall text, but the relationship is not elaborated.

Wall text and objects teach a few art history lessons. One learns how the artist profited from his life in Paris, including access to museums like the Louvre, the Ethnographic Museum, the Palais de Chaillot, and/or the Museum of Man at the Trocadéro. His story is one of many designers, architects, and artists, including Moroccans who have residencies in Paris thanks to personal efforts or Moroccan Ministry of Culture support. A subject not covered directly but implied is the politics of representing the body, including Giacometti’s sense of how the human form could be imagined as generally more attenuated and flattened versions in comparison to other artists of his generation or before, such as the relatively more abstract artist Jacques Lipchitz and Fernand Léger who preferred to create inflated figures. One can also contemplate the politics of representing nudity, which has an extra layer of meaning in the Moroccan context. Elsewhere in the museum and Rabat galleries there are few nudes.

Giacometti’s work nonetheless presents a creative complement to the artwork to Rabat museums. His contemplation of human forms calls to  mind the two dimensional examples of Mahe Binebine, Fatima Mazmouz, Abdelkader Melehi, Abdelhaq Sijelmassi, and Lala Essaydi, for example, who also reflect upon movement through space, the socio-cultural effect of depicting the body, and the significance of abstraction. Fortuitously, Giacommeti’s retrospective opened at nearly the same time as an exposition of Abdelkader Melehi’s Corps et graphie in the Ministry of Culture Galerie Bab El Kébir in Rabat.

There were a few topics the wall texts did not address when I visited the show on the day it opened to the public. I would have liked to have had a closer examination of Giacometti's primitivism, especially given the African context of the show. Giacometti was inspired by what he like other European Modernists championed as the simple geometry of African and American Indian art, yet most of his inspiration came from Parisian journals and museums, not voyages, and he seemed little concerned with symbolism. Notions of orientalism, ethnocentrism, and eurocentrism and their significance in the art history discourse are avoided in the wall text of the exhibit hall that less than a year ago housed Essaydi’s contemplation of how the female Arab human form became a symbol for pejorative conceptions of North Africans in Orientalist painting. The MMMVI is also a short walk away from the Bank al-Maghrib’s collection of Orientalist tableaux. Contemplations of Edward Said and James Clifford, among other postcolonial theorists, are not present. The omissions are a pity, since they present teaching moments and ways to fully insert Giacometti into the history of art history that includes Pablo Picasso, who also found inspiration in the African arts of the Palais de Chaillot. Also missed was a more thorough examination of how Giacometti fit within the canon of art history, including in relation to Auguste Rodin; and Constantin Brâncuşi. Giacometti’s fascination with ancient art and the cultural weight of his choices was also little explored. Perhaps the information is in the catalogue.

The Giacommeti retrospective is announced at the website for the Musée Mohammed VI d'Art Moderne et Contemporain http://www.museemohammed6.ma/. Catalogues are for sale at the reception desk.

Colette Apelian (Ph.D. University of California, Los Angeles) is an art and architectural historian who has previously published on popular and fine art, design, and architecture in North Africa. She organizes online and distance education courses in visual cultures.  She is based in Rabat.

History of electricity in French Colonial Morocco. To cite this article: Colet te Apelian (2012): Modern mosque lamps: elect ricity in the historic monuments and tourist at t ract ions of French colonial Fez, Morocco (1925–1950), History and Technology: An International Journal, 28:2, 177-207 To link to this article: http:/ / dx.doi.org/ 10.1080/ 07341512.2012.694208 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07341512.2012.694208

Brief Description:

Negotiating the City, Conserving Fez, Morocco during the French Protectorate (1912-1956) is a social history of urban and material cultures. It contains analysis of power relations, agency, policy, and law concerning the modernization and preservation of a medieval city and its urban fabric and green spaces. Resistance to government oversight and/or the practice of soft power is a main theme.  Documents considered include classified correspondences and government records; residents' letters; intelligence and police reports; national and municipal laws and policies; and historic newspapers, maps, photographs, postcards, and plans, among other archival resources in the French and Arabic languages. Modernization considered includes electrification, installation of a motorized vehicle network, and insertion of new buildings into historic urban fabrics. International trade of items for the electrical infrastructure is also covered.

Is at the UCLA library http://catalog.library.ucla.edu/

Poster during the Poster Session at "The Globalization of Science in the Middle East and North Africa, 18th-20th Centuries Conference," University of the Holy Cross, McFarland Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture in Worchester, MA, USA on March 24-25, 2017.

This conference brings together scholars from the Middle East, Europe, the United States, and Canada to explore important issues related to the history of science in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region during the 18th-20th centuries—a critical period of change and modernization when Middle Easterners were concerned about the rising power of European states and societies and the weakness of Islamic ones in relation to them. Conference participants will present papers which consider the nature of encounters between Islamic societies and the west as the balance of power between these regions shifted in the favor of Europe, including the role of science in modernization and development in the MENA region, the relationship between modern science and religion (Islam), the effects of European imperialism on the spread of modern science in the MENA (and the Global South more generally), and the use of science and technology by MENA states and societies to combat foreign domination in the region.

This conference is sponsored by the McFarland Center and funded by the Rehm Family Fund.

https://www.holycross.edu/faith-service/mcfarland-center-religion-ethics-and-culture/events-mcfarland-center/conferences/globalization-science-middle-east

Poster session during the conference "The Globalization of Science in the Middle East and North Africa, 18th-20th Centuries" at the College of the Holy Cross, March 24-25, 2017.

This conference brings together scholars from the Middle East, Europe, the United States, and Canada to explore important issues related to the history of science in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region during the 18th-20th centuries—a critical period of change and modernization when Middle Easterners were concerned about the rising power of European states and societies and the weakness of Islamic ones in relation to them. Conference participants will present papers which consider the nature of encounters between Islamic societies and the west as the balance of power between these regions shifted in the favor of Europe, including the role of science in modernization and development in the MENA region, the relationship between modern science and religion (Islam), the effects of European imperialism on the spread of modern science in the MENA (and the Global South more generally), and the use of science and technology by MENA states and societies to combat foreign domination in the region. Read more»

This conference is sponsored by the McFarland Center and funded by the Rehm Family Fund.

https://www.holycross.edu/faith-service/mcfarland-center-religion-ethics-and-culture/events-mcfarland-center/conferences/globalization-science-middle-east

Note: One upload contains a table of contents, the other, which was visible from late March 2015 to 4 April 2015, is a 31,000 word paper that is currently being revised for publication. I have obtained most rights to the images.

NOTE: my conference papers are usually written as articles or monographs/manuscripts I then edit to fit the frameworks of a presentation.

The text represents one of several manuscripts and publications stemming from my doctoral and postdoctoral research in Morocco, French, and United States archives as I organized online curricula and/or taught for Berkeley City College and Central Michigan University, among other schools (up to seven courses a semester, no summer breaks between 2008- the end of 2014).

The manuscript is also a text on military history. It builds upon a 2011 _Getty Research Journal_ article "Reading a Family Photo Album: "Tchèque(s)[?] voyagent au Maroc pour rendre visit à un légionnaire [de or en] Garnison" (2011)."

The monograph draft is an investigation of the ways in which knowledge about North African madinas (premodern established cities), particularly Fez, can be gleaned from certain types of pictorial sources. They include maps, plans, used or circulated postcards, and vernacular photography. Case studies from archives in Morocco, France, and the United States are placed in conversation to demonstrate how Fez was envisioned and revisioned. Of particular concern are conflicting senses of space, which collectively reveal heterogeneous understandings of Fez during the French colonial period, and, as such, hidden urban histories.  A main focus is the first decade to fifteen years of the Protectorate. A second goal is to argue for the preservation of pictorial sources, many of which are not actively collected, languishing in archives that are in need of assistance, or dismembered and residing in multiple locales, thus, without contexts that can assist in having them brought into discourse. The conference paper builds upon a study of the various Fezes represented in literature and imagery developed in chapter four of my dissertation, “Legally Fez: the Fragmented and Hybrid Ideal,” and an article on maps, “Imagining Fez during the French Colonial Period: Maps and Plans of the Early Twentieth Century,” among other publications and presentations.

Please inform the author if you cite this work.

It also builds upon previous conference papers I have been invited to present by Professors Susan Slomovics, Elizabeth Mix, Said Ennahid, and others since 2008, my 2005 UCLA dissertation, in addition to honoring a request made after I presented at 2008 MESA that I write an article about how I use maps as resources. The previous papers are:

“Maps, Plans, Postcards, and Photography: French Colonial Morocco in Images,” 4.2 Literary and Visual Urban Knowledge, Urban Knowledge: Urban History Group (UHG) Conference, Economic History Society, University of Wolverhampton, Telford Campus, West Midlands, United Kingdom (26 to 27 March 2015)  and

“Amateur Photography and Used Postcards:  Alternative Understandings of the Orientalist Archive of Morocco during the Early Twentieth Century," British Society of Middle East Studies (BRISMES) 2014 Conference, Sussex, UK (June 16, 2014)

“Illuminating a North African Madina: Local Requests, Local Responses,” Médinas and Bidonvilles: Issues in Workers’ Housing and Historic Preservation during the
French Protectorate Period in Morocco (1912-1956), Society for French Historical Studies (FHS) Boston, MA (April 4 to 7, 2013)

"A Brief Social History of Public Lighting in a Colonial North African City,” The Cosmopolitan Metropolis, Sixth Biennial Urban History Association (UHA) Conference, New York, NY (October 27, 2012)

"Valuing the Material Remnants of Modernization in a Moroccan Madina: Tourism and Histories of Science and Technology" Cultural Heritage Present Challenges and Future Perspectives International Conference, Universita Roma Tre, Rome, Italy (November 21 to 22, 2014) (unable to attend for scheduling reasons)

“Visions of City Security: Residents Requests for Street Lighting in French Colonial Fez, Morocco (1920s-50s),” 12th International Conference on Urban History (EUAH), Lisbon, Portugal (September 3, 2014)

“Between the Local and Global: Motorized Vehicles and Everyday Life in Early French Colonial Fez, Morocco (1912-1930s),” British Society of Middle East Studies (BRISMES) 2014 Conference, Sussex, UK (June 17, 2014)

“Amateur Photography and Used Postcards:  Alternative Understandings of the Orientalist Archive of Morocco during the Early Twentieth Century," British Society of Middle East Studies (BRISMES) 2014 Conference, Sussex, UK (June 16, 2014)
"Homi Bhabha’s Cultural Hybridity and Early Twentieth-Century Modifications of Fez, Morocco," Cultural Appropriation, Part II, College Art Association Conference, New York, New York (February 12, 2011)

“Driving Fez: Traffic and Preservation in a French Colonial Moroccan City (1912-1956),” Local Histories, Global Heritage, Local Heritage, Global Histories: Colonialism, History and the Making of Heritage Conference, German Historical Institute, London, England (May 17, 2009)

“Lamps in Local Character:  Electrifying the Historic City of Fez, Morocco during the French Protectorate,” The htc. Workshop (Architectural History, Theory, & Criticism), School of Architecture, Florida International University, Miami, FL (February 6, 2009)

“Negotiating the City: Revisiting Urban Preservation in French Colonial Morocco (1912-1956),” Middle East Studies Association (MESA) Conference, Washington, D.C. (November 23, 2008)

“Negotiating 'European' and 'Local' Characters: Preserving Fez during the French Protectorate,” Fez, Morocco, Crossroads of Knowledge and Power: Celebrating 1,200 Years of Urban Life, Universities of California, Riverside and Los Angeles (November 15, 2008)

Attached is a rough draft of my 2014 BRISMES conference paper. The British Society for Middle Eastern Studies is a British organization whose purpose is to encourage and advance the study of the Middle East in the United Kingdom. It was established in 1973 and publishes the British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies.

Subtitle:

Case studies from installing electricity in Muslim religious structures owned by the Ministry of Habous (Awqaf) in the old city (madina) of Fez, Morocco

Key Words:

history of technology, electricity, electrical infrastructure, electric power, French Colonial, Fez, old city, Morocco, globalization, cosmopolitanism

Description:

A thirty-seven page mostly double space essay, including notes and eight black and white and color images. The topic is the application of Homi Bhabha’s concept of hybridity and the history of electricity in the French colonial madina of Fez, Morocco (1912-56). The paper also includes a discussion of glass electric fixture designs in religious structures of Morocco.

at https://gumroad.com/l/DfkkT and https://gum.co/DfkkT

History of electricity in French Colonial Morocco.

To cite this article: Colet te Apelian (2012): Modern mosque lamps: elect ricity in the historic monuments and tourist at t ract ions of French colonial Fez, Morocco (1925–1950), History and Technology: An International Journal, 28:2, 177-207

To link to this article: http:/ / dx.doi.org/ 10.1080/ 07341512.2012.694208


https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07341512.2012.694208

At Gumroad Digital Publication Distribution -  https://gum.co/SDAmK

Between the Local and Global: Motorized Vehicles and Everyday Life in Early French Colonial Fez, Morocco (1912-1930s)

An illustrated essay about the social histories of electricity and automobiles in early twentieth century Fez, Morocco. The paper is based upon onsite and archival research in French and Moroccan archives and was presented at the BRISMES 2014 Conference.

BRISMES 2014 Panel: The Middle East in Global Perspective: Interactions Across Time and Space (British Society of Middle East Studies, Sussex, United Kingdom UK on June 17, 2014)


#restoration
#preservation
#NorthAfrica
#traffic
#development
#transportationnetwork
#Fez
#Morocco
#Maroc
#Fès
#Fesal-Jadid
#Fèsal-Jadîd
#JewishHistory
#JewishStudies
#Driving
#MichelEcochard
#UrbanPlanning
#Ford
#Chevrolet
#Renault
#Fiat
#FrenchColonial
#Automobiles
#cars
#motorizedvehicles
#Michelin 
#historiesoftechnologies
#madina
#urbanhistory
#electricity #transportationhistory

A lecture and essay written for the Khan Academy, meant for young readers who are new to Islamic art and architectural history. The essay references the history of restoring the Moroccan Qur'anic schools of Fez (medersas), processes and details I discuss in my dissertation, _Negotiating the City: Conserving Fez, Morocco during the French Protectorate, 1912-1956_ (UCLA 2005).  Originally created for the Khan Academy.

The Bou Anania (Bū 'Ināniya) Madrasa (Medersa) (Long Version), A Lecture & Essay written for the Khan Academy (long version)

A lecture and essay written for students new to North African art and architectural history. Originally prepared for the Khan Academy in long and short versions. Written and photographed primarily while sitting inside the medersa one Friday afternoon as it was closed in preparation for prayer time.

The essay or lecture is based in part upon sections of my dissertation in which I created an itemized list of which elements were restored during the French colonial period in the Fez medersas (madaris, madrassas). The analysis was based upon Moroccan and French archival documents and photographs, in addition to onsite visits.

The dissertation title is _Negotiating the City: Conserving Fez, Morocco during the French Protectorate, 1912-1956_ (2005, Art History, University of California, Los Angeles [UCLA].)

Written after a fall October 2013 onsite visit to Kairouan and the mosque the author documented in photographs Khan Academy editors chose to not include in their essay.

A short essay and lecture written in accessible language for new students to Islamic North African architecture and architectural history.

https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-islam/islamic-art-early/a/the-great-mosque-of-kairouan

In the following  essay, the author agrees that distance education should be expanded at United States institutions of higher education, especially if it is to democratize education as President Barak Obama suggested during his terms in office.

Dr. Apelian also suggests ways to move forward that may improve organizational problems.

Her opinions are culled from the author’s nearly seven years of experience creating content and websites for Humanities distance education programs for American and International students at community colleges in three states: California, Michigan, and Georgia. She also created the online curricula for Berkeley City College, including an ARTStor award winning lecture on solutions to climate problems in historic Islamic world architecture.

Referenced and/or analyzed are the 2008 Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA), the 2009 United States Department of Education (USDE) Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning: A Meta-Analysis and Review of Online Learning Studies, the 2013-14 California Community Colleges Online Education Initiative, and a 2013 Babson Survey and Quahog Research Group sponsored study, among other articles and opinion pieces in scholarly journals, among other sources.

The text can be applied to other learning management platforms, including Canvas.

Description:
Twenty-four double-spaced pages, no illustrations, references


Key Words: 

social media, distance education, online education, eLearning, e-learning, eTeaching, Moodle, Blackboard, adjuncts, art history, humanities, ETUDES-NG, costs, accessibility, community colleges, United States, California, learning management system platform lms lmp

Full text is at https://gumroad.com/capelian#

The attached documents describe the benefits of online education. Benefits include democratizing education for nontraditional students and providing them current, original research.

I would also add there are benefits of showing young ladies they can be in technology and teaching all students to hone technology skills useful in the workplace. 

Distance Education can additionally serve refugees in any nation.

Some administrators may ask why is it important to raise the profile of a university and cultivate the image that an institution of higher education supports digital humanities and the democratization of knowledge.

One main reason is grant funding for these activities and others.

I originally wrote the text years ago.  Today, I would add that the number of students I typically taught each semester could be considered MOOC size, and, while at the time I wrote this essay, I primarily used Androids and PCs, as it was most often compatible with my students' and institutions' systems, I like Apple and Macs, too. Finally, the types of online education I discuss are flexible, and could be applied to courses arranged for blind students or students who prefer video conferencing and videos for viewing lectures, some of which I have incorporated in my classes.

(Essay originally written during Autumn 2013 to December 2014)

The links attached lead to the award description and ARTstor's incorporation of my lecture in it presentation describing the relevance of their collection to architectural history.

https://artstor.wordpress.com/2011/05/16/online-teaching-and-architectural-solutions-to-climate-problems-in-the-islamic-world/

http://www.artstor.org/news/n-html/travel-awards.shtml

https://artstor.wordpress.com/2011/05/16/winners-of-the-artstor-travel-award-2011/

http://lib.caa.edu.cn/temp/ARTstor.ppt

Simon O’Meara begins his compact urban history, Space and Muslim Urban Life: At the Limits of the Labyrinth of Fez, by describing how French sociologist Henri Lefebvre inspired O’Meara’s conception of cities. Like Lefebvre, O’Meara believes urban spaces are both products of social interaction and the means through which that interaction is endlessly produced. As such, the built environment is not simply an empty vessel subsequently filled with objects and events, but an entity simultaneously resulting from and perpetuating everyday existence (p. 4). While similar definitions of space have long animated urban studies of modern to contemporary European and North American settlements, O’Meara argues that space has yet to be fully analyzed in what he calls pre-modern (roughly 1400-1800 CE) Islamic cities (or Arab-Muslim or Arab-Islamic cities) such as Fez, Morocco (pp. ix, 1). O’Meara’s approach towards architecture and social life resonates with Bessim Selim Hakim’s and Janet Abu-Lugho...

Author:
Besim S. Hakim
Reviewer:
Colette Apelian
Misc: contains analysis of Islamic law concerning architecture and cities

Yasser Elsheshtawy, ed. The Evolving Arab City: Tradition, Modernity and Urban Development. London: Routledge, 2008. xiv + 314 pp. $125.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-415-41156-1. Besim S. Hakim. Sidi Bou Sa'id, Tunisia: Structure and Form of a Mediterranean Village. Halifax: School of Architecture, Nova Scotia Technical College, 2009. xiii + 181 pp. $19.95 (paper), ISBN 978-0-9683184-1-6.Besim S. Hakim. Arabic-Islamic Cities: Building and Planning Principles. EmergentCity Press, 2008. 197 pp. $25.99 (paper), ISBN 978-0-9683184-2-3; ISBN 978-0-9683184-3-0.

Reviewed by Colette Apelian (Berkeley City College)
Published on H-Urban (September, 2010)
Commissioned by Alexander Vari

Writing North African and Middle Eastern Cities

Recent developments in the United Arab Emirates and neighboring nations correspond to a resurgence of publications addressing Arab and Islamic cities and architecture. Studies continue to examine and advocate traditional building and planning practices in their various forms while investigating how examples from the past relate to the present.[1] However, contemporary political and economic events and the controversial results of some Middle Eastern and North African projects have newly infused some discussions with soul-searching analyses of ways to draw communities together through architecture and urban design. Three publications open a window into this side of the discourse and show its relevance across fields and disciplines. In Arabic-Islamic Cities: Building and Planning Principles and Sidi Bou Sa’id, Tunisia: Structure and Form of a Mediterranean Village, Besim S. Hakim renews his argument for building traditionally first articulated in the late 1970s to 1980s. Yasser Elsheshtawy and the contributors to The Evolving Arab City: Tradition, Modernity and Urban Development consider the results of ignoring exhortations like Hakim’s. They also investigate attempts to satisfy them with external décor instead of locales for public gathering and low-income housing.

While one cannot deny the importance of recognizing and dispersing critiques found in The Evolving Arab City, one cannot help but wonder, especially after reading Hakim’s publications, what the paths forward will be now that the problems are identified and disseminated. Most essays do not discuss or under-address resistance and the activities of non-professional designers. It is sometimes unclear how effective the few mentions of opposition are, including blogging, place-making, and “other signs of hope” to which Elsheshtawy and Daher allude (pp. 15, 20, 23, 62-64). If these activities are not efficient, how can citizens challenge the state and decision-makers and communicate residents’ ideas and needs, especially since, as Elsheshtawy argues, officials’ privileging of Western architects’ and planners’ visions of Middle Eastern cities exacerbates current social problems?

The above is an excerpt from https://networks.h-net.org/node/22277/reviews/23030/apelian-elsheshtawy-evolving-arab-city-tradition-modernity-and-urban

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
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note: contains analysis of Islamic law concerning architecture and cities

Managing Bodies and the Gaze: Walls in Pre-Modern Arab-Islamic Cities

Simon O'Meara begins his compact urban history, Space and Muslim Urban Life: At the Limits of the Labyrinth of Fez, by describing how French sociologist Henri Lefebvre inspired O'Meara's conception of cities. Like Lefebvre, O'Meara believes urban spaces are both products of social interaction and the means through which that interaction is endlessly produced. As such, the built environment is not simply an empty vessel subsequently filled with objects and events, but an entity simultaneously resulting from and perpetuating everyday existence (p. 4). While similar definitions of space have long animated urban studies of modern to contemporary European and North American settlements, O'Meara argues that space has yet to be fully analyzed in what he calls pre-modern (roughly 1400-1800 CE) Islamic cities (or Arab-Muslim or Arab-Islamic cities) such as Fez, Morocco (pp. ix, 1). O'Meara's approach towards architecture and social life resonates with Bessim Selim Hakim's and Janet Abu-Lughod's depictions of Arab-Islamic settlements. However, O'Meara fills a gap in their publications and later discourse on Arab-Islamic architecture by focusing upon the relationship between the practice of law in local courts (`amal), local customs (`urf), walls, movement, and vision in Fez. O'Meara also uniquely assesses local customs by analyzing a wide variety of textual sources.[1]

Excerpt from http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=15780

The Walled Arab City in Literature, Architecture, and History explores a trajectory famously charted by Janet Abu-Lughod and critics of her influential article "The Islamic City^×Historic Myth, Islamic Essence, and Contemporary Relevance" (1987). Abu-Lughod^Òs article continued a discussion begun in the late 1960s to early 1970s among scholars and practicing architects regarding the history and continued viability of the category "Islamic city." Her article specifically addressed the concerns of planners and bureaucrats in the Middle East who desired to include "Islamic" elements in development projects. Drawing on previous studies and fieldwork, Abu-Lughod dismantled the category, historicizing and exposing its overly-reductive, self-referential contents, and critiquing its authors for ignoring or disallowing certain socio-economic conditions. After exploring circumstances in which the category could be used, Abu-Lughod concluded that the notion of an "Islamic city" will remain relevant only if it is accepted that "cities are processes, not products," or rather the sum of both design and use^×a response reflecting the dichotomization between space and place popular in humanist geography since the 1970s....

To be precise, the plural of "medina" in Arabic is "mudun," but "medinas" is common in English language publications, as is "medina" rather than "madinah." These points are noted in the Introduction. However, it is a little unclear why conference organizers choose to qualify "walled cities" with "Arab" in the title of this book. True, most scholars agree that the Arabs were the first major city builders in North Africa after the Romans, and that Arab rulers favored protective walls. Yet, not only ethnically Arab rulers developed the medinas mentioned in this book. For example, the Marinids of the Banu Marin Zanata Berber tribe built much of Fez during the late thirteenth centuries, including establishing the walled palace city Fez al-Jedid. In the eighth century, the Banu Ifran, also a tribe of Zanata Berbers, built Tilimsan (Tlemcen) over a Roman settlement. Subsequent Berber Muslim dynasties, especially the Zayyanids, contributed religious monuments to Tlemcen. After the sixteenth century, Ottoman Turks built palaces, mosques, baths, warehouses/hotels and religious schools in Tunis, Tripoli (especially), and Algiers, among other modern-day Algerian and Libyan cities. Also, the medinas mentioned in this book have been comprised of ethnically diverse populations during much of their existence, especially during the colonial and postcolonial eras favored in this publication. See Jamil M. Abun-Nasr, A History of the Maghrib in the Islamic Period (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987).

Excerpts from http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=6073

Street food in Morocco should be consumed in moderation and after CDC recommended travel vaccinations. Also, as with many foods and drinks, one should be aware of pesticide and other types of residues. Olive oil may be "cut" with unknown liquids, so beware. Bottled water and hand sanitizer are recommended. Finally, traveling as a female alone in Morocco is not recommended for those without substantial Arabic, French, and/or Spanish, especially outside of Marrakesh, a city with one of the highest number of English language speakers in Morocco. I encountered few if any English speakers in Demnate, and communicated in Moroccan Arabic with all but the restaurant owner, who insisted we speak in French.

Street food, Rabat madina, May 22, 2016 is the updated article published in 2013, fall at Morocco News Board, now defunct.

Street food in Morocco should be consumed in moderation and after CDC recommended travel vaccinations. Also, as with many foods and drinks, one should be aware of pesticide and other types of residues. Bottled water and hand sanitizer are recommended.

The article was originally published at http://www.moroccoboard.com/viewpoint-5/511-colette-apelian/5780-morocco-the-henna-suq-in-fez.

Tourists to Morocco are recommended to have all their travel vaccinations weeks before arriving and to take care to avoid unhealthful food, drink, and other types of situations while in Morocco, which has different standards and levels of government oversight and accountability than the United States. 

Street food in Morocco should be consumed in moderation and after CDC recommended travel vaccinations. Also, as with many foods and drinks, one should be aware of pesticide and other types of residues. Bottled water and hand sanitizer are recommended.

Not covered in this article, originally written in 2012, are subsequent transnational studies concerning Morocco's less than satisfactory regulation of pesticide use or, rather, its over use.

Since publishing, this marketplace has become dangerous in another way: unregulated use of the triporters or three wheel motorcycle trucks, to deliver produce, mostly from a wholesale market Salé, to vendors, including during peak shopping times. It is a wonder there are not more injuries to shoppers and vendors alike from the triporters racing through the narrow and sometimes unevenly paved market street.

Not published with this research are issues of food security, waste, and gendered sales transactions I observed from 2012- 2017.

Finally, street food and beverages in Morocco should be consumed in moderation and after CDC recommended travel vaccinations. One should be aware of pesticide and other types of residues. Bottled water and hand sanitizer are recommended.

“Morocco through Glass” – is a series of films created during 2014 that demonstrate the rapidly changing country of Morocco, from agrarian to urban. Topics explored in image include the loss of green spaces, street art, vernacular (bidonvilles) and designed architecture (apartment buildings), and other evidence of the growing contrast in lifestyles and senses of place and space resulting from globalization and other influences. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCS5NmDl8G6_-EOPS4jejdSQ

The structural engineers, Adams Kara Taylor (AKT) of London, have an important task at Sahat al Kabira constructed in the Atlantic coastal city of Rabat, Morocco. The site has soft soils as it is located in a floodplain and on reclaimed wetlands about two kilometers from the mouth of the Bou Regreg River. As construction progresses, so does global warming, rising tides, and the increased frequency of storms and flooding. Sahat al Kabira is also in an earthquake and tsunami zone. At their website, AKT acknowledge the site difficulties and outline solutions. They include raising the site about five meters (sixteen and a half feet) above the river and building on Grade Three tanks of waterproof concrete. To mitigate moisture, AKT incorporated drained cavity approaches to build the basement below the floodplain and river level. Concerns about soil liquefaction during an earthquake resulted in the use of diameter piles sunk about twelve to fifteen meters (forty to fifty feet) into stiffer soils. The solutions are unique in Morocco and demonstrate alternatives to seismic activity problems, as well, besides sinking caissons into bedrock or building on frictionless rollers.

There are two files attached to this link. Use the arrow to show and access each. Academia.edu does not support .wmv files, so paste the following link into your browser: https://www.dropbox.com/s/yoye7wob7i3ek2c/Apelia-excerpt-lecture-space-timing-.wmv?dl=0