Rim Affaya is a postdoctoral researcher in anthropology at A*MIDEX (Aix-Marseille University, Centre Norbert Elias). She earned her PhD from the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) in Marseille, where she conducted her doctoral research at the Centre Norbert Elias. Her work explores the intersections of material circulations, diasporic economies, and the contemporary commodification of cultural identities within Moroccan migratory trajectories.
Her research also engages with post-migration subjectivities, the materiality of cultural exchanges, and forms of diasporic female entrepreneurship across European spaces.
She is currently a fellow at the Institut Convergences Migrations in Paris, a member of MiMed (Thematic Network on Migrations in the Mediterranean), and part of the MOVIDA research network.
In June 2025, she was awarded the “Francophone Dissertation Prize on the Maghreb” in Strasbourg by the North Africa Regional Office of the Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie (AUF), in collaboration with the GIS Middle East and Muslim Worlds (GIS MOMM) and the Institute for the Study of Islam and Societies of the Muslim World (IISMM, EHESS-CNRS). The prize recognized her doctoral thesis entitled “Caftans, Camionnettes, and Banquettes: An Anthropology of the Commodification of Morocco in the Diaspora.”
Selected publication
“Four Demoiselles of Avignon: The Commodification of ‘Moroccan Marriage’ in Europe and the End of the Ethnic Subject” (Revue Européenne des Migrations Internationales, Vol. 37, No. 3–4, 2022, pp. 57–82)
Residency period
From September 2025 to July 2026.
Upcoming Residency at IAS-UM6P:
Rooted in a century-old anthropological tradition that began with Edward Westermarck, yet boldly renewed for the 21st century, this project seeks to document, analyze, and reimagine the Moroccan marriage ceremony,not as a static folkloric custom, but as a living ritual shaped by modern aesthetics, social mobility, gender dynamics, and diasporic influences.Drawing from ethnographic research across Casablanca, Laâyoune/Dakhla, and Amsterdam, Affaya will immerse herself in the worlds of negafas, stylists, families, and artisans who give form to today’s marriage ceremonies. From embroidered caftans and ceremonial thrones to Instagram aesthetics and wedding marketplaces, every element becomes a key to understanding how Moroccans today negotiate tradition, identity, and aspiration.