Fellows

Archives Through a Decolonial Lens. Moroccan Performers and Cultural Encounters in European Circuses (1820–1950)

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

This project attempts to explore archival material through the prism of postcolonial consciousness and decolonial lens. It revolves around the experience of the Moroccan traveling troupes of performers in Europe from the nineteenth century up to the mid-twentieth. It tries to bring out the little-known narratives of Moroccan performers in European archives and to shed light on their silenced journeys throughout various historical junctures. Newspaper articles, entertainment magazine articles, census charts and records, naturalization indexes, passenger lists of arrivals, records on professional occupations and apprenticeships, wedding and divorce documents, court suit records, passports, circus and fair programs, photographs, and scrapbooks, provide access to untold stories of cultural encounters between Morocco and Europe. They open up intriguing research possibilities to explore complex discourses in new revisionist historiography. By examining these archives, the project seeks to contribute to a deeper understanding of Moroccan performers’ cultural interactions and often-marginalized histories, thereby enriching the broader field of postcolonial studies and offering fresh perspectives on historical narratives.

CV

Lhoussain Simour is Associate Professor of English and Cultural Studies at Hassan II University of Casablanca and Senior Research Associate at the University of Gibraltar. He defended his »Habilitation« on Moroccan history, culture, and identity between archival authority, colonial intervention and postcolonial memory, a PhD in Moroccan Cultural Studies, and an MA in Cultural Studies from Sidi Mohammed Ben Abdullah University, Fez. His research spans cultural studies, postcolonial literature and cinema, travel narratives, performance studies, and Moroccan music. He has published extensively on these issues. Simour has authored four monographs, including Migration Film Festivals (2025) and Recollecting History beyond Borders (2014), and contributed extensively to edited volumes and peer-reviewed journals. He has presented at international conferences, and serves on editorial boards of journals including Journal of North African Studies and Women’s Studies International Forum. He leads projects on migration, media, and cultural memory. ORCID: 0000-0003-4315-5718.

Publications

»The Other History of Cultural Encounters through Performance Revisited: Shifting Discourses on Moroccan Acrobatic Entertainers in Nineteenth-Century America«, in: Cultural Studies Journal 34, no. 1 (2020), p. 70–94, https://doi.org/10.1080/09502386.2018.1564779.

»Shahrazād in Transatlantic Journeys: Moorish Dancing Travelers beyond Borders in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries«, in: European Journal of American Culture 38, no. 3 (2019), p. 217–237.

»Blurring the Boundaries of Gendered Encounters: Moorish Dancing Girls in Nineteenth and Early Twentieth-Century American Fair Exhibitions«, in: Hawwa: Journal of Women in the Middle East and the Islamic World 11, no. 2–3 (2014), p. 133–159, https://doi.org/10.1163/15692086-12341250 .

»American Fair Expositions Revisited: Morocco’s Acrobatic Performers between the Industry of Entertainment and the Violence of Racial Display«, in: Journal for Cultural Research 17, no. 3 (2013), p. 295–322, https://doi.org/10.1080/14797585.2012.752163.

»The Sexually Enthralling Other: Oriental Weddings in Performance and American Erotics of the Brown Threat«, in: Journal of North African Studies 17, no. 3 (2012), p. 389–408, https://doi.org/10.1080/13629387.2011.634613.