This seminar focuses on the photographic album titled Le “Mellah” (taudis juif) à Casablanca en 1947. Taken and assembled by Elias Suraqui (1893–1967), an Algerian-Jewish architect and philanthropist who was based in Morocco, the photographic album testifies to the systemic hardship endured by those it depicts, including the material consequences of colonial and antisemitic oppression. Drawing on evidence from the Jean-Louis Cohen fonds in the CCA Collection, Huet positions the album as an important visual testimony of life and architecture in Casablanca’s Jewish quarter during the late 1940s.

This event is free and open to the public, but space is limited, so registration is required. Admission to the museum is included with your registration.

Jacobé Huet is an Assistant Professor at the University of Chicago and a historian of modern architecture with a focus on the transcultural Mediterranean. Her writing has appeared or is forthcoming in Perspecta: The Yale Architectural Journal, Critical Inquiry, Muqarnas: An Annual on the Visual Cultures of the Islamic World, and the Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians. Huet received her Ph.D. in History and Theory of Architecture from Harvard University in 2022.