Marrakech \u2013 The Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV) in Tarragona has launched Spain\u2019s first Chair of Moroccan Studies aimed at deepening knowledge, research, and cooperation between Catalonia and Morocco.<\/p>\n
The signing ceremony on Monday brought<\/a> together key institutional stakeholders, reflecting the project\u2019s multidimensional character. Santiago Castell\u00e0, President of the Port Authority of Tarragona, attended alongside Josep Pallar\u00e8s, Rector of the Rovira i Virgili University.<\/p>\n Morocco\u2019s Consul in Tarragona, Ikram Chahin, represented the Moroccan diplomatic mission, while Mohamed Kassid, on behalf of Kassid Training, finalized the institutional partnership.<\/p>\n The program, approved<\/a> by the university\u2019s governing council on October 30, is described by university officials as the first initiative of its kind not only in Catalonia but across Spain.<\/p>\n The chair was spearheaded by the Moroccan General Consulate in Tarragona, Lleida, and Arag\u00f3n, with institutional backing from the Port Authority of Tarragona and Kassid Training Center. It is formally attached to URV\u2019s Department of History and Art History and is directed by Professor Jordi \u00c0. Carbonell Pallar\u00e8s, a chair holder in Art History.<\/p>\n The Chair of Moroccan Studies operates across three complementary pillars: research, education, and knowledge transfer.<\/p>\n Its research agenda focuses on shared historical trajectories between Catalonia and Morocco, with particular attention to migration dynamics, socioeconomic development, orientalism, memory policies, and the preservation of material and intangible heritage.<\/p>\n Archaeological and paleoanthropological research will also continue under the chair, notably through ongoing Catalan Institute of Human Paleoecology and Social Evolution (IPHES)-led excavations in Oujda, alongside institutional support for studies on orientalism in northern Morocco.<\/p>\n Education constitutes the second core axis of the program. URV plans to organize thematic seminars, participatory workshops, and academic encounters open to both university audiences and the wider public.<\/p>\n Student mobility initiatives with Moroccan universities are also planned, complemented by immersive study trips designed to support field research and firsthand academic engagement for students and researchers from an intercultural perspective.<\/p>\n The third pillar centers on knowledge transfer and public engagement. The chair will host conferences, symposiums, and lecture series, while producing academic publications and educational materials.<\/p>\n Community outreach activities are intended to bridge academic research with local societies, reinforcing dialogue between institutions and populations on both shores of the Mediterranean.<\/p>\n Moroccan community placed at the center<\/b><\/p>\n