Columbia University’s Society of Fellows and Heyman Center for the Humanities will host a “Morocco in Spain” programme from October 19 to 22, 2026, including a presentation explicitly focused on Tamazgha and Amazigh indigeneity.
The conference examines the historical, cultural and migratory relations between Morocco and Spain. Its organizers frame those relations as complex and often shaped by colonial imaginaries, with Moroccan migration in Spain producing overlapping identities that resist simple national categories.
On October 19, the opening panel, “Dislocating Nations,” includes a paper by Brahim El Guabli of Williams College titled “Tamazgha Remaps Africa: Reflections on the Scholarly Potential of Amazigh Indigeneity.” The same panel also includes Yasmina Aidi of Tulane University on cannabis history in the Strait of Gibraltar, with Columbia’s Pier Mattia Tommasino moderating.
For Amazigh studies, the inclusion of Tamazgha in a Morocco-Spain programme is significant. It places Amazigh indigeneity within debates about migration, colonial memory, Mediterranean crossings and the categories scholars use to describe North Africa.
The conference is supported by several academic and cultural partners, including the Society of Fellows and Heyman Center, the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, the Institute for Religion, Culture and Public Life, Columbia’s Rare Book and Manuscript Library, and the Institute for Comparative Literature and Society.
Later events in the programme include a book reading, an archive visit linked to Edward Said and Orientalism, and a discussion at the Feria Internacional del Libro de la Ciudad de New York on new literary imaginaries between Spain and Morocco.
The Amazigh-focused presentation offers a chance to widen the discussion beyond bilateral state relations. By centering Tamazgha, the panel can raise questions about how Indigenous North African frameworks alter the study of Africa, Europe and the Mediterranean.