After World War I, the Mediterranean was reinvented. The region moved from the margins to the center of political, scholarly and artistic attention and became the object of comprehensive imperial visions. At the same time, new policies arose that were aimed at fundamentally transforming both the region and its people in biological, spatial and temporal terms. After the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, borders were redrawn on a large scale irrespective of the existing social, ethnic and religious composition of the local populations. While the “Wilsonian moment” delegitimized the concept of empire and witnessed the rise of anticolonial, national movements, France and Britain nonetheless extended their imperial rule to include the former Ottoman provinces in the Levant. In turn, Fascist Italy challenged British and French hegemony over the region and declared the Mediterranean a “mare nostrum”.
The third workshop of the Research Network The Modern Mediterranean: Dynamics of a World Region 1800 | 2000, funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), the École Française de Rome (EFR), and the Deutsches Historisches Institut in Rom (DHI Rome), focuses on the dynamics initiated by the Fascist challenge and on the competing, yet related European visions of the Mediterranean that it brought forth.
We will discuss in how far the concepts of geopolitics, biopolitics and chronopolitics are helpful for grasping both the visions of the Mediterranean as well as the characteristic features of the imperial practices on the ground. As they played a vital role for Mediterranean thalassocracies, we also take a closer look at islands and the changes their populations were confronted with when these highly contested places changed hands. Furthermore, the workshop scrutinizes mutual perceptions of the Mediterranean empires, the transfer of imperial know-how and imperial brokers. Finally, we hope to highlight the ambivalent role of Christian missionaries. While these protagonists are often overlooked, they played an important role as either backers or critics of empire. Ultimately, our aim is to better understand the making of the modern Mediterranean in what turns out to be a crucial period of its transition.
URL: https://modernmediterranean.net/
Registration for the keynote lecture at the German Historical Institute in Rome (DHI Rome): http:/
Programm
18.03.2019 (DHI Rome)
18:00-18:15
Martin Baumeister (DHI Rome): WELCOME
18:15-19:30
KEYNOTE LECTURE by Roberta Pergher (Bloomington, IN):
Reimagining Empire in a World of Nations.
Italy’s Expansionism in the Interwar Era
19:30 Rinfresco
19.03.2019 (EFR)
09:00-09:15
Catherine Virlouvet (EFR): WELCOME
09:15-09:30
INTRODUCTION: Patrick Bernhard (Oslo), Manuel Borutta (Konstanz), Fernando Esposito (Tübingen)
SECTION I: BIOPOLITICS, CHRONOPOLITICS, GEOPOLITICS
Chair: Nora Lafi (Berlin)
09:30-10:30
Patrick Bernhard (Oslo):
Deadly Biopolitics. Arabs, Jews and Italian Mass Violence in North Africa from a Global Perspective
10:45-11:45
Fernando Esposito (Tübingen):
Mare Nostrum. The Chronopolitics of Fascist Empire
11:45-12:45
Manuel Borutta (Konstanz):
Liquid Continent. Geopolitical Visions of the Mediterranean in the Interwar Period
13:00-14:30 Lunch
SECTION II: CONTESTED ISLANDS
Chair: Fabian Lemmes (Bochum)
14:30-15:30
Alexis Rappas (Istanbul):
European Rule in the Levant or the Paradox of Impermanence and Containment
15:45-16:45
Deborah Paci (Venezia):
The Renaissance of Imperial Geopolitics. The Irredentist Claim of Mussolini’s Italy over Corsica and Malta (1922-1942)
16:45-17:45
Andreas Guidi (Paris):
“Youth-as-politics”? The Italian Colonial Rule in Rhodes and the Emergence of Alternative Political Identifications
18:15-19:30
KEYNOTE LECTURE by Martin Thomas (Exeter):
Confrontation and Co-imperialism in the French
and British Mediterranean Empires after 1918
20:00 Dinner
20.03.2019 (EFR)
SECTION III: MUTUAL PERSPECTIVES
Chair: Esther Möller (Mainz)
09:15-10:15
Fabrice Jesné (EFR):
Servants of Empire in the “Others’” Empires. Italian Consuls in Lebanon during the 1930s
10:45-11:45
Jacopo Pili (Leeds):
New Carthage. British Civilization, Empire and Race in the Fascist Italian Discourse
11:45-12:45
Arie M. Dubnov (Washington, DC):
A Zionist Mare Nostrum?
SECTION IV: RELIGIOUS MISSIONS
Chair: Jasmin Daam (Kassel)
14:30-15:30
Stefan Preiß (Konstanz):
Catholic Mission and the Changing Tide of Colonial Rule in Algeria (1868-1930s). The Example of White Fathers and White Sisters
15:30-16:30
Anna Laura Turiano (EFR):
Italian Missionaries and European Imperial Rivalries in Interwar Egypt. The Salesian Schools in the Scramble for Influence
17:00-18:00
Karène Sanchez (EFR):
For God and which Country? British and French Missionaries in Interwar Palestine
18:00-19:00
FINAL DISCUSSION:
Did Empires Create the Mediterranean as We Know It?
19:30 Dinner
21.03.2019 (EFR)
09:00-11:00
INTERNAL DISCUSSION of the Network’s Members
11:00-13:00
GUIDED TOUR through Fascist Rome with Amedeo Osti Guerrazzi (Rome)
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[1] Due to current conflicts, crises and wars, the Mediterranean is back on the agenda of the social sciences and the cultural studies. Yet, in the field of modern history this paradigm is almost absent. The Research Network „The Modern Mediterranean: Dynamics of a World Region 1800 | 2000“, funded by the DFG, aims to transcend the fragmentation of separate historiographies and to get a more integrated view of the modern Mediterranean. It focuses on the dynamics and transformations that have shaped the region since the nineteenth century. For further information see: modernmediterranean.net
Kontakt
Registration for the workshop:
heidi.engelmann@uni-konstanz.d