Welcome to Northeastern University’s 2026 Dialogue of Civilizations to Morocco and Spain

Hello students, friends, and family! During the next month we will be embarking on a journey across two countries and two continents to explore the history of Muslim, Christian, and Jewish civilizations–their interactions, conflicts, and mutual influences–in Medieval Iberia and the Maghreb, with an eye to understanding how the memory of this period shapes the current states of Spain and Morocco. Throughout the trip this blog will be your window into our adventures with regular updates written by our eighteen students as they explore, listen, learn, and reflect on our experiences.

The program blog this year will be co-edited by our two talented program assistants. Kaedyn Murphy participated in our inaugural program in 2024, graduated with a Bachelor’s of Science in History in 2025 and headed straight from graduation to Rabat to return as a program assistant. After this third tour, Kaedyn will be starting law school in the fall at UC Law San Francisco. Melody Asaresh Moghadem is completing a PhD in World History at Northeastern, where she also received her MA in World History. Melody’s doctoral research focuses on the modern Middle East and Anglo-Russian imperialism in Iran.

Throughout the program the students will also be researching and developing digital history projects on a range of topics that will all be published on this site in June.

We hope you enjoy following along with our adventures. See you in Morocco!

Simon Rabinovitch