Kitchens of Becoming: Gender, Foodwork, and Transformation in Morocco Open Access
Trukhnova, Sasha (Spring 2026)
Abstract
Through three very different case studies, this thesis seeks to weave together an exploration of how everyday cooking in Morocco becomes a mechanism for women and a transgender man to experience and move through important life transitions. Utilizing two and a half months of participant observation and semi-structured interviews, this thesis seeks to answer the question: What happens to a daughter, a worker, and a transgender man when they cook in domestic and commercial Moroccan kitchens amid shifting gender expectations? This analysis is predicated on three diverse case studies. First, a college student named Khnata who self identifies as traditional undergoes a series of cooking tests set by her mother to prepare her for married life, which she is eager to escape to. The daily practice of cooking traditional Moroccan meals becomes a rite of passage, in which Khnata seeks to transition into adulthood from daughter and student to wife and mother. The second case study follows a non-profit in Marrakech named Amal, which trains women, typically impoverished and/or navigating a difficult home life, for working at a restaurant. Amal seeks to transition women into a financially liberated status amid gendered hierarchies in Morocco's culinary world. The final case study is focused on Sam, a transgender man working in a restaurant in Marrakech who uses cooking and working in a restaurant, alongside nights out and cooking in my rented apartment, to perform, navigate, and experience gender in various landscapes. Taken together, these studies examine Moroccan kitchens as sites where tradition, gendered expectations, and skills are passed down, but also where people work out what it means to be a wife, a worker, or a man. In tracing these “kitchens of becoming,” this thesis argues that everyday food preparation can function as a space where changing Moroccan gender expectations, and gender identities themselves, are lived, contested and imagined.
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Couscous and the Contemporary: An Introduction 1 Theories on the Table: Gender and Food in Morocco 10 Tagine and Testing: Cooking as a Rite of Passage into Wifehood 22 Tea and Training: Transitioning into Visibility 37 Pastilla and Performance: Transgender Masculinity, Chefhood and Elongated Liminality 55 Kitchens of Becoming: A Conclusion 73 References 78
About this Honors Thesis
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