A lecture by Driss Ksikes (Insitut des Hautes Etudes Management)

Tuesday, October 22, 2019
12:00 PM
Royce Hall 314

Based on his essay on intellectuals in Morocco, co-authored with Fadma Aït Mous (2015, national nonfiction award) and on his most recent field research and articles on culture and public space in Morocco, as well as art and activism in the region, Driss Ksikes suggests a more comprehensive reflection on how art and culture predetermined the trends of political activism before 2011 and how they redefine new ways of tackling questions of public interests in the aftermath of these uprisings. This is reflection on disruptive modes of discourse and action, art spaces and practices, and new political rationales.

Driss Ksikes is professor at Insitut des Hautes Etudes Management (HEM) of media, culture and creative writing. Previously editor of TelQuel, he is since 2007 managing Director of HEM’s research center and editor of Economia, its main review journal. As a literary fiction writer, he published Ma boîte noire (2006), L’homme descend du silence (2014) and Au Détroit d’Averroès (2017, 2019). He has been called “one of the most innovative writers in Morocco today” and was named “one of the six best African playwrights” by the National Studio Theatre in London in 2012. He was selected among 200 Arab playwrights for residence in Avignon in 2013, to write his play N’enterrez pas trop vite Big Brother (Don’t hurry up in burying Big Brother), directed by Catherine Marnas. He was appointed in 2016 by AFAC as a juror on living arts and short listed twice as best francophone playwright (2015 and 2017). He was selected as visiting Writer-in-Residence In Chicago by the Center for the Writing Arts at Northwestern University for the spring 2017 quarter. He is the author of numerous plays, Pas de mémoire, mémoire de pas (1998), Le Saint des incertains (2000), Il/Houwa (2008), 180 degrés (2014), The Match (2016). As a scholar, he has published various articles and delivered lectures in international academic and media networks. His book Le métier d’intellectuel : dialogues avec quinze penseurs du Maroc (The intellectual profession: interviews with 15 Moroccan thinkers), co-authored with Fadma Aït Mous, won the Prix Grand Atlas, Morocco’s most prestigious book prize. In English, his stories are regularly published by Triquarterly literary journal.

Sponsor(s): Center for Near Eastern Studies