Mediterranean studies are booming. Yet, the modern Mediterranean remains a historiographical blind spot. Though historical research on the Mediterranean of the 19th and first half of the 20th century has grown massively during the last decade, the paradigm is still hardly established within the field of modern history where sub-, trans- and non-Mediterranean frameworks of analysis prevail. Since those area studies that do cover parts of the region are either also in an early stage of trans-regionalization or limit themselves to intraregional dynamics, a comprehensive view is missing. In order to change this, this workshop will revisit the genealogy of Mediterraneanism (1); discuss the place of the modern Mediterranean in the field of world history (2); compare the approaches of Mediterranean studies with those of neighboring and connected seas (3) and areas (4), and, finally, reflect upon the question how a history of the modern Mediterranean can be written (5-6). On a methodological level, we wish to define the relation of Mediterranean and global history with regard to the modern age, during which processes of regional and global integration overlapped and influenced each other on an unprecedented scale. The workshop will be held at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin & Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient Berlin, 4-7 October 2022.
The sixth workshop of the DFG Research Network Modern Mediterranean: Dynamics of a World Region 1800 / 2000 is organized by Manuel Borutta, Malte Fuhrmann, Nora Lafi, Esther Möller and Daniel Tödt in cooperation with Forum Transregionale Studien, Historicity of Democracy in the Arab and Muslim Worlds (HISDEMAB), Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient (ZMO), Merian Centre for Advanced Studies in the Maghreb (MECAM) and Universität Konstanz. The Research Network 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. For further information see: modmed.uni-konstanz.de