Presentation

III International Conferences “MediterráneoS 2016”

 

Early-Stage Researchers in Languages and Cultures of the Mediterranean

and the Near East

Madrid, 26th, 27th and 28th of October 2016

 

Presentation

 

The “MediterráneoS” International Conferences are organised by early-stage research members of the Institute of Languages and Cultures of the Mediterranean and the Near East (ILC-CCHS). Our Institute gathers diverse projects devoted to the study of various Mediterranean languages and cultures, considering its Greek, Roman, Jewish, Arabic, and Near Eastern origins and influences.

 

In the last decades, several researchers have questioned the validity of the notion “Mediterranean”, interpreted as an intelligible unit of analysis, arguing that it responds rather to a modern discursive construction and holding that the unified perception of reality and the study employed is nothing else than  a fiction. Despite that, and endorsing many of these postulates, the “Mediterranean” continues to be a tremendously useful tool when addressing particular issues that require a wider analysis framework, greater implications and broader horizons for their understanding. The Mediterranean has been and still is a place for exchange and contact. A borderland, in some cases, with limits, but one with permeable and spongy limits that feeds itself from its different shores.

 

Embracing the legacy of the two prior editions (2010 and 2012), the aim of “MediterráneoS 2016” is that of recreating the space –imagined and many times built up– for dialogue, connection and transition, creating a transversal and interdisciplinary forum for discussion and reflection about the different intellectual, cultural and social manifestations that took place in the Mediterranean from Antiquity until the Early modern period.