CFP: “From Mediterranean to Atlantic World,” Winter 2023 Mediterranean Workshop (3 & 4 February: Miami)

Brian Catlos Discussion
Type: 
Symposium
Date: 
February 3, 2023 to February 4, 2023
Location: 
United States
Subject Fields: 
Atlantic History / Studies, European History / Studies, Medieval and Byzantine History / Studies, Middle East History / Studies, Early Modern History and Period Studies

Paper proposals and round-table participants are being sought for the Mediterranean Seminar’s two-day Winter 2023 Meeting, to be held at Florida International University/the University of Miami on 3 & 4 February on the subject “From Mediterranean to Atlantic World.”
 
Miami is a city famous for being a port to Latin America, and a port within the Americas—it is an Atlantic city. In this special coastal location, we hope to have a conversation about both an historical transition, and a scholarly method. The transition is what took place economically and politically in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries with the rise of the Portuguese and Spanish empires and a shift in economic activity. Fernand Braudel (whom many of us enjoy debating!) and Emmanuel Wallerstein and other economic historians have described the rise of entrepot cities, or even a Modern World System at this time, creating a global economy, and a shift from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic world. So, we wish to discuss this transition, from all angles. We are also interested in historiographic questions regarding the ways the Mediterranean Seminar and its associates use the Mediterranean as a frame or method, and whether or not Atlantic history has similar qualities or advantages as a non-national history (by including Europe, Africa, the Americas, etc., just as Jews, Christians, Muslims, and many others are included in Mediterranean studies).
 
For the workshop (to be held on Friday, 3 February), we invite abstracts of in-progress drafts of articles or book/dissertation chapters on any subject (historical, economic, cultural, literary, artistic, religious, or historiographical) relating to either the historical moment “From Mediterranean to Atlantic world” or to the historiographical advantages or disadvantages of either method—Mediterranean Studies/History or Atlantic Studies/History. Papers from across the humanities or social sciences, including disciplines such as history, literature, cultural studies, religious studies, art history, musicology, anthropology are welcome. Our Mediterranean is construed geographically as including southern Europe, the Near East and North Africa and into the Black Sea and Central Asia, and the Red Sea and the western Indian ocean: however, due to our specific topic at this workshop, scholars working on Europe, the Americas, and Africa are also encouraged to apply.
 
All North American-based scholars (or foreign scholars who will be in the US at this time) working on relevant material are encouraged to apply. Workshop presenters will receive a travel and accommodation stipend; round-table presenters may apply for funding for accommodation (not guaranteed and dependent on budget). Scholars from further abroad may apply but we cannot pay full travel costs. ABD PhD students, junior and non-tenure track faculty are particularly welcome to apply and will receive priority when allocating travel funds.
 
The workshop will also feature a keynote presentation by Dr. Roger Louis Martínez-Dávila, Associate Professor of History at the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs. He is the author of Creating Conversos: The Carvajal-Santa-María Family in Early Modern Spain (2018). 
 
On the second day, Saturday 4 February, a one-day symposium on our topic “From Mediterranean to Atlantic world” will feature three round-table conversations, focusing on the following questions:

  1. How did the beginning of the Atlantic world transform geographies of trade and exchange in both the Atlantic world and the greater Mediterranean?
  2. How can Mediterranean studies enrich Atlantic studies and vice versa? In what ways are the methods similar or different?
  3. How did the expansion from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic affect perceptions and/or representations of identity and difference in forms as diverse as literature, art, or law, etc. 

 
A separate call for non-presenting workshop and symposium attendees will go out in December.
 
The deadline for workshop and round-table proposals is 10 November 2022. Please submit an abstract (250-500 words) and two-page CV by this date via this form. You may apply to present at the workshop and apply as a round-table participant as a back stop. If that is the case, please fill in a form for each application.
 
Successful workshop applicants are expected to submit a 35-page (maximum) double-spaced paper-in-progress for pre-circulation by Monday, 9 January 2023. Round table participants will be required to submit a 3-5 page “position paper” by Monday, 16 January 2023.

Apply via this form
 
This workshop is sponsored by the University Graduate School, the Green School of International and Public Affairs, History, English, DOHGSA, Religious Studies, Politics & International Relations, Economics, and Modern Languages at Florida International University, and the College of Arts and Sciences, Center for the Humanities, Judaic Studies, History, English, and Modern Languages and Literatures at the University of Miami.
 
For further information, please consult www.mediterraneanseminar.org, or inquire at mailbox@mediterraneanseminar.org
 

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