The genealogy of the Moroccan cultural studies turn and the postcolonial politics of scholarly emancipation: re-edit to subvert

This article maps the emergence of Moroccan Cultural Studies within Departments of English in Morocco, tracing how postcolonial critique evolved from a critical sensibility into an institutionalized intellectual project. Postcolonial critique first emerged in Tetouan, where Mohamed Laamiri, Khalid Bekkaoui Jamal Eddine Benhayoun and Sadik Rddad – drawing on Edward Said – challenged the English literary canon by engaging non-canonical texts, including dramatic works, captivity narratives, and travel writing, to interrogate colonial representations of the Moors, Barbary, and North Africa. Building on this foundation, Moroccan Cultural Studies was institutionally founded in Fes through the Moroccan Cultural Studies Centre, under Khalid Bekkaoui’s leadership. There, these early interventions were transformed into a collective project of scholarly emancipation, grounded in location-specific practices of re-editing, re-reading, and re-writing. Moroccan Cultural Studies reframes English not as a lingua franca of imperial domination but as a discursive medium for critical knowledge production, enabling a decolonial turn in English Studies. By institutionalizing postcolonial critique and extending its analytical reach, this study positions Moroccan Cultural Studies as a model for future decolonial projects in English Studies that can be pursued across the Maghreb, Africa, and the Arabo-Islamic world, highlighting the interplay between place, pedagogy, and power in the formation of new postcolonial knowledge practices.