CFP : “Socio-economic and cultural exchanges” – MedWorlds 7 (15-17 September, Toulon)

The University of Toulon (France) is proud to host MedWorlds : 7th International Conference of Mediterranean Worlds on the topic “Socio-economic and cultural exchanges in the Mediterranean: continuities and ruptures,” to be held on 15-17 September 2015.

At a conference hosted in 2013 by the Arab World Institute (Paris) with the support of the Cultural Council of the Mediterranean Union, sociologist Edgar Morin sounded the alarm, warning against rising nationalist identity politics in Mediterranean countries: “The Mediterranean is fading as a common point of cultural identity. Can we save the Mediterranean? Can we restore and, even better, develop its sense of community? Can we reenergize this sea of exchanges and encounters, this melting pot of cultures, this engine of culture and civilization?”

In the light of all the above-mentioned questions, the aim of this conference is to raise the issue of exchanges according to a multidisciplinary approach and analyze the aspect of continuity and disintegration from a critical point of view. Ever since the unification of the Mare Nostrum by the Romans up until the contemporary cultural mosaic resulting from European colonial empires, the Mediterranean region represents, as a center of exchanges and a crossroads between different civilizations, a long and diversified history. This diversity can be seen in the range of both conflicting identities as well as the interaction between cultures, in exclusion and integration, and in cleavages and intermingling. Insofar as exchanges imply the acknowledgement of diversity, as well as mobility, transformation and change, they may not be considered to be purely descriptive and static. They need to be placed within the context of a dialectic involving continuity and disintegration, openness and rejection, and with all the risks this may entail for Mediterranean identities, hovering between an anthropological continuum and the disintegration of civilizations.
    
Whether it is a matter of economy or law, language or literature, history or sociology, the Mediterranean area constitutes a privileged field of research for reflecting on the dynamic processes operating in exchanges. Therefore papers are required to be thought-provoking and methodically inventive as mainly focused on the following issues:

– free trade and economic blockades;
– autonomy and heteronomy;
– independence and inter-dependence;
– conservatism and modernity;
– autarchy and globalization;
– linguistic conservatism and the intermingling of languages;
– tradition and openness;
– uniformity and diversity;
– internationalism and ethnicity;
– Europe and the Middle East (the North vis-à-vis the South);
– frontiers and crossroads in the Mediterranean.

We welcome the submission of 250-word abstracts for twenty-minute papers that broadly address the above themes. The proposals (inclusive of at least 3 descriptive words) should be sent by mail before April 15th 2015, to the following address: medworlds7@gmail.com. The organizing committee will inform you of his decision in late April.

The proposals should preferably be delivered in English or French (however, it should also be possible to deliver them in Italian or Spanish).
 
Contacts : je.bernard@univ-tln.fr ; leiduanalex@hotmail.com ; laure.leveque@univ-tln.fr
 
The participation will be free of charge. We are pleased to inform you that the University of Toulon will be able to accommodate all conference participants, and to provide meals, free of charge.

Magali Romaggi

Agrégée de lettres classiques, doctorante en littérature médiévale à l'Université Lumière Lyon 2, elle travaille sur la figure de Narcisse au Moyen Âge.

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