Local-global shifts, research reform, emerging

technologies, positioning for growth: creative-

performative opportunities for academics, NGO’s, and
community advocates –
the case of International Centre for Performance
Studies, Tangier

George F Roberson

University of Massachusetts-Amherst

[The visual elements that accompanied this verbal/visual presentation

are available online at:
http://interactive-worlds.blogspot.com/2010/05/pt-2010.html]

So first a little bit of background. My name is George Roberson. I am

a cultural geographer with the Human Dimensions Research Group in the
Department of Geosciences at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.
[see slide 1]
I was in Tangier on a year long Fulbright Scholar research grant in
20081 with the International Centre for Performance Studies2 (ICPS for
short – and the producer of these annual conferences). My chief collaborator
is Khalid Amine; ICPS Founder, President and Conference Convener. The
focus of my ongoing work is international collaboration and education, and
more specifically, on theory and praxis of intercultural engagement and
processes of change. In a fundamental way, it’s one of the reasons we’re all
here at the conference. 3 The world is in another period of great upheaval
and reconfiguration, digital communications have even reoriented our sense
of the local-global spectrum, and once again Tangier is at the crossroads.
Putting theory into practice has never been more important so some of the
things we’ve been focusing on include developing these conferences,
communications, technology, outreach, mentoring and publishing.4 [see
slide 2]
SWOT analysis. Indeed, in applying a SWOT analysis to the situation
—that is: strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats— the ICPS
publishing program is among its greatest strengths. Due to Khalid’s
leadership and the contributions of so many volunteer partners —authors,

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artists, translators, editors, granters, printers, designers, readers, etc— the
ICPS library has grown to include many multilingual offerings in a range of
genres: drama, literary criticism, conference proceedings, and translations.
However, jumping ahead to threats, we must be realistic: we’re not as
well-know as we need to be and building up new institutions and practices
upsets the status quo and also competes with differing visions of the future
and backlash can result.
Threats notwithstanding and though support has been broad-based, the
greatest weakness is a lack of sufficient and stable financial resources to
enable ICPS to blossom to full potential. A prime example, although the
current publishing program is robust, it is not cheap and so book distribution
has always been limited to only within Morocco, plus, whatever our partners
have been able to hand-carry home to other places.
In short, this paper is a call to develop multiple strategies to move
forward: both to begin to shore up ICPS’s fiscal/future viability and also to
make sure the dialogue here has staying power and the international reach it
deserves.
So I encourage all to think about what opportunities we have. [see
slide 3]
One opportunity, already being developed, is to extend the publishing
program to the international level. By doing so, we hope to generate some
income, but much more importantly, with your help we’ll expand our
international presence, make Morocco and Moroccan concerns more
accessible to outsiders, and make Moroccan works more widely available
(which still remain underrepresented at the world level). Equally important,
I believe an international oriented publishing program will be crucial in
improving our ability to win significant grants to support all the good things
that ICPS is doing.
Next I’ll tell you a bit about what we’re doing to develop the program,
show you our first three titles, and then conclude by asking you to get
involved and support this effort and I’ll give some specific suggestions. [see
slide 4]
New technology, new systems. Last year ICPS formed a strategic
publishing partnership with Collaborative Media International (CMI), that’s
my new academic NGO founded specifically to do this work. We’re also
working with the largest book distributer in the world: Ingram Books. This
gives us access to the largest networks and latest technologies to efficiently
and effectively reach readers worldwide. And we bypass only-for-profit
publishers entirely so we retain full rights and control.
Rigorous, transparent, democratic processes. In putting together a
book, partners volunteer their time, talent and intellectual capital and
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proceeds go ICPS and to produce more books. Bookstores anywhere can
stock the books on their shelves, but as I mentioned at the outset big
changes are happening all over the place in how things work and a new
reality is that specialty items, like our books, reach their target market best
via the internet. So to buy one of our books, most people will order it online
from any one of the many online book sellers (Amazon.com has been
incredibly successful) and the book is automatically printed and quickly sent
anywhere in the world directly to the customer. However, to be clear, this
new model should in no way reduce the existing publishing program which
has done such a great job of making books available all over Morocco at
really great prices.
Testing the system. In selecting our first book to test this new global
publishing model, we carefully searched for a book concept with a good
chance to succeed. Fortunately both a real need for a new book and a draft
book were quickly identified. Here’s how it went. Some Fulbright
colleagues who were studying Moroccan Arabic in 2007-2008 told me
about the need for more user-oriented resources for learning the language.
Furthermore, Aaron Sakulich, one of the Fulbrighters, already had a book-
length draft that he had written for his own use. To make a long story short,
Rajae Khaloufi and Khalid joined in the project and the first copies of
Moroccan Arabic started shipping in August 2009.5 [see slide 5]
You can see here the cover of the book and the members of the
collaborative team.
Since it is hoped that this a model that others might emulate, I’ll
briefly recount some aspects of the book concept that gave it good potential:
1) people were already saying a book like this was
needed;
2) it brings together crucial resources into one
inexpensive book (like side-by-side English, transliteration
and Arabic);
3) non-fiction always has the best sales potential
especially how-to books;
4) we already knew who the main users would be
(ourselves and our students, Fulbrighters, Peace Corps, other
students, travelers, etc); and importantly,
5) ICPS would claim a stake and some rewards in
teaching Darija.

And the back cover with some quotes from the team. [see slide 6]
There are lots of little details woven in here (i.e. the cover photos were taken
here in Tangier and were specifically chosen to reflect the rapid
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urbanization taken place all over Morocco and also to challenge the typical
outsiders visualization of Morocco as just camels, sand and palm trees.)
And the book on Amazon.6 [see slide 6] Note the price: $20 and on
sale for $18. A domestic edition could also be done to better reach the
tourist market.
Now the reality is that most books published these days don’t sell too
many copies. But the initial the response has been good so we are already
preparing for a second edition (and we know there are some errors in the
original text). So it’s our first international book (and some proceeds are
supporting this conference) and it is hoped that it will be just the first in a
series of international educational resources.
So the logical next step was to try several international editions of
some existing ICPS books and, thinking strategically and looking to the
future, to begin to group them into topical series.
The first two are: [see slide 8] A Contemporary Voices Series:
Shakespeare Lane, by Zoubier Ben Bouchta.7 Soon we’d like to do the other
two plays in the trilogy: The Red Fire and Lalla J’mila (a Moroccan
national drama prize winner).
And the back cover. [see slide 9] Featuring original production photos
and a quote from Marvin Carlson (our conference closing keynote speaker).
“Shakespeare Lane is a most welcome addition to new
translations of world drama, not only because the important
contributions of Moroccan dramatists are still much under-
represented among those translations but also because this
play provides a fascinating and moving example of how the
European dramatic tradition, here represented by
Shakespeare, is today being reworked and given new life and
relevance by artists from non-European cultures. It is
especially fitting that the play is set in Tangier, so long a
crossroads of multiple cultures.”

And for fun, here’s the book on Amazon Japan.8 [see slide 10] Note
the price: 2,159 yen – about $15.
And the first in an International Collaboration Series: Bowles / Beats /
Tangier, edited by Allen Hibbard and Barry Tharaud.9 [see slide 11] This is
the conference proceedings from Performing Tangier 2008. And like the
Shakespeare Lane cover, these editions incorporate aspects of the graphic
designs done by Altopress, the ICPS publishing partner here in Tangier.
And the back cover features a quote from Khalid about the goals of
ICPS and these conferences. [see slide 12]

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 “The Tangier conferences are a forum that aims at
bridging the gap of difference and connecting cultures, as
well as reaching across the divide to the Other. The setting of
Tangier makes a perfect home for new intercultural
encounters that celebrate and honor our essential humanity. It
offers a glimmer of hope during a dark time marked by the
hegemony of the post 9/11 discourses of horrorism.”

I’ll conclude with some ideas about how you can help: [see slide 13]

Buy the books

Use the books as required reading in your classes
Do a book review, on Amazon.com for example – rate it five stars
Recommend to your networks: students, colleagues, professional
organizations
Donate money
Reference in your scholarly work
Write a grant linking your work to ICPS and vice-versa
Propose a manuscript
Recommend an author

Volunteer to join the collaborative team as: author, editor, translator, peer
reviewer, grant writer, talent scout, promoter, technology expert (who
knows about ebooks, Paypal, or can help us with online audio for Darija
text?)
And to quickly recap: [see slide 14]

Build up a strategic international publishing program

Keep the domestic publishing program going
Sustain and grow our reach a wider / international audience
Move more contributors and collaborators are needed to come
forward
And together we’ll improve the position to win significant grants

Special thanks to: Margie Kanter, Jose Delgado, Jeffrey Miller, Barry
Tharaud and Andrew Hussey who all had invaluable input on publishing.

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 Notes
1
http://interactive-worlds.blogspot.com/2007/12/contribute.html
2
http://www.icpsmorocco.org/
3
http://icpsmorocco.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=11
4&Itemid=178
4
http://interactive-worlds.blogspot.com/2008/05/tangier-conference.html
5
http://collaborativemedia.blogspot.com/2009/03/darija-text.html
6
http://www.amazon.com/Moroccan-Arabic-Practical-Learning-
Dialect/dp/0982440901/
7
http://interactive-worlds.blogspot.com/2008/02/shakespeare-lane.html
8
http://www.amazon.co.jp/Shakespeare-Lane-Zoubeir-Ben-
Bouchta/dp/098244091X/
9
http://www.amazon.com/Bowles-Beats-Tangier-Allen-
Hibbard/dp/0982440928/

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