Book Launch & Author Talk: Jonathan Smolin, "Moroccan Noir: Police, Crime, and Politics in Popular Culture"

The Center for Middle Eastern Studies Outreach Program is pleased to present an author talk by

Jonathan Smolin
Associate Professor of Asian and Middle Eastern Languages and Literatures, Dartmouth College

Moderated by William Granara, CMES Director and Gordon Gray Professor of the Practice of Arabic, Harvard University

About the event:

• A limited number of free copies of Moroccan Noir will be available on a first come, first served basis to Harvard students attending this talk (please have your Harvard ID available).
• This is a brown bag (bring-your-own) lunch event. Cookies and beverages provided.

About the author:
Jonathan Smolin is Associate Professor of Asian and Middle Eastern Languages and Literatures at Dartmouth College. His first book, Moroccan Noir: Police, Crime, and Politics in Popular Culture, explores the relationship between sensationalism, mass media, and authoritarianism in contemporary Morocco. He is currently working on a book on representations of illegal immigration in North Africa. Smolin received his PhD in Modern Arabic Literature and Culture from Harvard University.

About Moroccan Noir: Police, Crime, and Politics in Popular Culture:

Facing rising demands for human rights and the rule of law, the Moroccan state fostered new mass media and cultivated more positive images of the police, once the symbol of state repression, reinventing the relationship between citizen and state for a new era. Jonathan Smolin examines popular culture and mass media to understand the changing nature of authoritarianism in Morocco over the past two decades. Using neglected Arabic sources including crime tabloids, television movies, true-crime journalism, and police advertising, Smolin sheds new light on politics and popular culture in the Middle East and North Africa.

Contact: Sarah Meyrick

As a Title VI National Resource Center, CMES is partially funding this program with U.S. Department of Education grant funds. The content of this program does not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the U.S. Department of Education.