Event: ‘The Mediterranean as a Battleground and a Space of Encounters’ - Research Workshop
Date: 10 & 11 October 2022
The Mediterranean Institute and the Department of Anthropological Sciences of the University of Malta will be hosting a two-day research workshop titled ‘The Mediterranean as a Battleground and a Space of Encounters’.
The workshop stems from the assumption that spaces of transit along borders can be addressed as laboratories of new imaginaries of borders and boundaries, of national belonging, communities, and state constituencies. Furthermore, these sites raise relevant questions about bordering practices, and the hierarchy between international laws, humanitarian and economic rights. Seen through this conceptual framework, the maritime space appears as a transnational battleground where migration containment policies are continuously developed and enforced.
The workshop is being convened by anthropologist Dr Daniela DeBono, Resident Academic in Anthropology, and Coordinator of the Mediterranean Institute’s Research Node on ‘Displacement, Democratisation and Development', sociologist Dr Enrico Fravega, post-doctoral Research Fellow at the University of Genoa and coordinator of the MOBS project, and Prof. Matteo Aria, Associate Professor in Cultural Anthropology at La Sapienza University of Rome.
A number of experts have been invited to contribute to the sessions. Among whom there are anthropologist Prof. Naor Ben-Yehoyada from Columbia University, Mediterranean Institute Director Prof. Norbert Bugeja, documentary photographer and Resident Academic Dr Gilbert Calleja, Dr Carla Camilleri, Assistant Director at aditus Foundation, Dr Katrine Camilleri, Director of the Jesuit Refugee Service Malta, University of Trento sociologist Dr Chiara Denaro, Dr Neil Falzon, Director of the aditus Foundation and Mr Mark Micallef, Director of the North Africa and Sahel Observatory, Global Initiative Against Transnational OrganiSed Crime.
The workshop will include researchers from the universities of Genoa and Parma who are participating in a two week nautical-ethnographic mission across the Central Mediterranean sea, following one of the most important, and dangerous, migration routes from north Africa to Europe.
