Dr Cristina Moreno Almeida

Profile

I am currently the Principal Investigator of the ERC-Starting Grant (ERC selected, UKRI funded) project ‘Digital Al-Andalus: Radical Perspectives Of and Through Al-Andalus’ (2023-2024). The project explores the amalgamation of historical events, politicized narratives, nostalgia for lost empires, cultural diversity, and violent actions in the realm of digital media. I have a keen interest in exploring the intersection of aesthetics, politics, and power within the realms of cultural production and digital cultures. My specific areas of interest encompass youth culture, rap music, memes, and digital cultural production. I am particularly fascinated by discourses related to power and resistance, patriotism, nationalism, and emerging forms of Far-Right ideologies.  

My new book Memes, Monsters, and the Digital Grotesque (Oxford University Press, 2024), presents a novel approach to studying informal politics, monstrous aesthetics, and digital media. The book revolves around digital cultures, focusing on memes, politics, and digital aesthetics exploring grotesque aesthetics in memes and other forms of digital cultural production to articulate contemporary issues and politics online. 

Among my other publications is my single-authored book Rap Beyond Resistance: Staging Power in Contemporary Morocco (Palgrave McMillan, 2017) is part of my work looking at the intersection between aesthetics, politics, and digital culture. The book discusses the tension between state-sponsored cultures and the ways in which independent artists negotiate between patriotic musical traditions and finding strategies to overcome mediatic and economic censorship. I have also published work on memes, politics and digital aesthetics in two articles at New Media and Society and The International Journal of Press/Politics. Both articles discuss the development of meme culture in Morocco as a medium to mock power, but also the preferred mode of expression for the newly emerged local Alt-Right. Additionally, I have published on creative forms of youth online participation in Jordan, Tunisia, Morocco and the UAE in papers published in Media, Culture & Society and Global Media and Communication.  

My academic journey includes prior roles at the LSE Middle East Centre and the Department of Media and Communications, where I collaborated on the 'Personalised Media and Participatory Culture' project (2015-2017) with the American University of Sharjah (UAE). In this project, my research centred on young people’s participatory culture, creative production, and internet usage in Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia, and the UAE. I also held a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship working at the Department of Digital Humanities at King’s College London. This fellowship enabled me to delve into the study of Moroccan digital cultures, investigating the social, cultural, and political implications of disseminating cultural content through digital platforms. 

Additionally, I have actively engaged with young artists through various initiatives, such as the Fábrica de Rimas/Fabrique des Rimes (Rhyme Factory) project, which facilitated collaborations between rappers from Colombia and Morocco (2012-2015). I have also contributed to the Pop-Up Studios project with the British Council in Morocco, where I shared my expertise in the music field with aspiring young artists. Furthermore, I organized the (Beat)Making the North African Cool! workshop, a beat-making event centred on North African music, as part of the Being Human Festival in 2019. 

Find more about my work and upcoming events at cristinamorenoalmeida.com  

Teaching

Not currently teaching 

Research

Research Interests:

• Cultural Studies
• Digital Cultures
• Music and Youth Cultures
• Power and Resistance
• Nationalism and Patriotism
• Far-Right
• North Africa and the Middle East

Publications

Book 

Moreno-Almeida, C. 2024. Memes, Monsters, and the Digital Grotesque. Oxford: Oxford University Press (open access here)  

Moreno-Almeida, C. 2017. Rap Beyond ‘Resistance’: Staging Power in Contemporary Morocco. London: Palgrave McMillan 

Articles 

Moreno-Almeida, C. & Gerbaudo, P. 2021. “Memes and the Moroccan Far-Right.” The International Journal of Press/Politics, 26 (4), pp. 882-906. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/1940161221995083  

Crooke, A., Moreno-Almeida, C., Comte, R. 2021. “A Critical Interpretive Synthesis of Research Linking Hip Hop and Wellbeing in Schools.” Journal of Hip Hop Studies, 8 (1), pp. 127-160. Available at https://doi.org/10.34718/ts65-ky23  

Moreno-Almeida, C. 2020. “Memes as Snapshots of Political Participation: The Role of Digital Amateur Activists in Authoritarian Regimes” New Media and Society, 23(6), pp. 1545.1566. Available at https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444820912722 

Banaji, S & Moreno-Almeida, C. 2020. “Politicising Creativity at The Margins: The Significance of Class, Gender and Sexuality for the Politics of Online Youth Networks in The MENA Region.” Global Media and Communication, 17(1), pp. 121-142. Available at https://doi.org/10.1177/1742766520982029  

Crooke, A., Comte, R. & Moreno-Almeida, C. 2020. “Hip Hop as an Agent for Health and Wellbeing in Schools: A Narrative Synthesis of Existing Research.” VOICES, 20 (1). Available at https://voices.no/index.php/voices/article/view/2870/2929?fbclid=IwAR0JMclovuddTpQIPbDdm2g7mLZo1hnpenxT4HpJtVpqkr3J_g5-Fwrhd7Y 

Moreno-Almeida, C. & Banaji, S. 2019. “Digital Use and Mistrust in the Aftermath of the Arab Spring: Beyond Narratives of Liberation and Disillusionment.” Media, Culture & Society, 41(8), pp.1125-1141. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/0163443718823143 

Crooke, A & Moreno-Almeida, C. 2017. “‘It’s good to know something real and all that’: Exploring the Benefits of a School-Based Hip Hop Program.” Australian Journal of Music Education, 51(1), 13-28. Available at: https://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=967435258266803;res=IELHSS 

Banaji, S & Moreno-Almeida, C. 2017. “From Passion to Activism? The Politics, Communications and Creativity of Participatory Networks in The MENA Region”. LSE Middle East Centre Report, pp. 1-20 

Moreno-Almeida, C. 2017. “Reporting on Selective Voices of Resistance: Secularism, Class and Islamist Rap.” International Journal of Cultural Studies, 21 (4), pp. 343-358. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/1367877917694093 

Moreno-Almeida, C. 2015. “The Politics of Taqlidi Rap: Reimagining Moroccanness in the Era of Global Flows.” Journal of North African Studies 21 (1), pp. 116-131. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13629387.2015.1084101 

Moreno-Almeida, C. 2014. “La Evolución de las Distintas Voces del Rap en Marruecos: Más Allá de la Cooptación y la Disidencia.” AWRAQ 10, pp. 123-139. Available at: http://www.awraq.es/blob.aspx?idx=5&nId=120&hash=c1aae77d8b69714c501459e4ea1702cf  

Moreno-Almeida, C. 2013. “Unraveling Distinct Voices in Moroccan Rap: Evading Control, Weaving Solidarities and Building New Spaces for Self-expression.” Journal of African Cultural Studies, Special Issue: Contemporary Moroccan Cultural Production: Between Dissent and Co-optation 25 (3), pp. 319-332. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13696815.2013.820130 

Calvo, E. et al., 2009. “Aplicación de las Nuevas Tecnologías a la Enseñanza del Árabe En La Universidad: el Proyecto Árabe En Línea (Ael) del GIDC Luga De La UB.” Arabele, Madrid: Casa Árabe, pp. 89-102 

Book Chapters and Contributions 

Moreno-Almeida, C. 2023. “Moroccan Hip Hop Queens: A (Her)Story of Moroccan Rap.” In Loubna Skalli Hanna & Nahed Eltantawy (eds), The Palgrave Handbook of Gender, Media and Communication in the Middle East and North Africa, Palgrave McMillan, pp. 447-464 

Moreno-Almeida, C. “Dis-meme-bering Al-Andalus: The Memetic Afterlives of the Andalusi song “Chams al Achya.” In Charles Hirschkind & Matthew Machin-Autenrieth (eds), The Musical Afterlives of al-Andalus: Identities and Encounters beyond History, Open Book Publishers (forthcoming 2024). 

Moreno-Almeida, C. 2020. “Forgotten Encounters: Sounds of Coexistence in Moroccan Rap Music.” In Sami Everett & Rebekah Vince (ed), Jewish Muslim Interactions: Performing Cultures between North Africa and France. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, pp. 161-180 

Moreno-Almeida, C. 2016. “‘Race’ and ‘Blackness’ in Moroccan Rap: Voicing Local Experiences of Marginality.” In Alex Lubin and Marwan Kraidy (eds.), American Studies Encounters the Middle East. Chapel Hill, N.C.: The University of North Carolina Press, pp. 81-105 

Moreno-Almeida, C. 2016. “Imagining the Enemy: The Role of Patriotic Rap Songs in Curbing Critical Voices in Morocco.” In Najib Mokhtari (ed), Decentering Patterns of Otherness: Towards an Asymmetrical Transcendence of Identity in Postcolonial MENA. Rabat: Babel; UIR Press, pp. 187-201 

Moreno-Almeida, C. 2014. “From the West Coast to Tangier: Translocal Hip Hop in the New Morocco.” In Alex Lubin (ed), Shifting Borders: America and the Middle East/North Africa: proceedings of the fourth international conference sponsored by CASAR at AUB, Beirut: American University of Beirut Press, pp. 81-91 

Moreno-Almeida, C. 2014. “‘Arab Spring’ and Hip Hop ‘Cool.’” In Said Graiouid and Taieb Belghazi (eds), Migration, Human Rights and the Politics of Identity in a Globalized World, Rabat: Faculté des Lettres et des Sciences Humaines de Rabat, pp. 223-237 

Online publications 

Meme-forcing the Moroccan Re-Reconquista. Jadaliyya. Available at: https://www.jadaliyya.com/Details/44817/Meme-Forcing-the-Moroccan-Re-Reconquista (2023) 

The Revival of Moorish Empire and the Moroccan Far Right. Jadaliyya. Available at: https://www.jadaliyya.com/Details/42600/The-Revival-of-Moorish-Empire-and-the-Moroccan-Far-Right (2021) 

Revisiting the Cultural Field in Morocco and Tunisia after the ‘Arab Spring’. Middle East Centre Blog. Blog entry. Available at: http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/mec/2017/12/03/revisiting-the-cultural-field-in-morocco-and-tunisia-after-the-arab-spring/ (2017) 

Making Space for Aesthetics in the Arabic Rap Scene. Palgrave Macmillan Studies in Sound and Music. Blog entry. Available at: https://www.palgrave.com/gp/campaigns/sound-and-music/almeida-blog (2017)