[URBANTH-L] CFP for AAA: "Mediterranean Cities": Space, Sociality, Nationalism and Cultural Encounters

[Daniel Monterescu]

CALL FOR PAPERS
2005 American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting
November 30 - December 4, 2005
Washington, DC


"MEDITERRANEAN CITIES": SPACE, SOCIALITY, NATIONALISM AND CULTURAL ENCOUNTERS


 The renowned historian Fernand Braudel queries in the introduction to his “La 
Méditerranée: L’espace et l’histoire” (1977): “What is the Mediterranean? A 
thousand things at one and the same time. It is not a landscape but 
uncountable landscapes. It is not a sea but a complex of seas. It is not a 
culture but many cultures piled upon each other. To explore the Mediterranean 
is to encounter ancient things, still living, residing alongside very modern 
things [
] In its physical landscape, as well as in its human landscape, the 
colorful Mediterranean crossroads appears in our memories as a coherent image, 
as a system in which everything blends and combines again in original unity. 
How can we explain this clear unity, this deep essence of the Mediterranean?” 
(translation mine).
This panel seeks to critically address this question and problematize existing
conceptualizations of the urban Mediterranean from anthropological, 
sociological and historical perspectives. Potential themes are: Mediterranean 
cities between Europe and the Middle East; the Mediterranean as a trade zone; 
Mediterranean urbanity and immigration; Mediterranean nostalgia; Mediterranean 
(post)colonialisms; power relations within the Mediterranean; gender in 
Mediterranean cities; and literary representations of Mediterranean cities.
 
For More Information Contact: 
Daniel Monterescu
The Department of Anthropology
The University of Chicago 
dbmonter at uchicago.edu
(773) 288-6552

Abstracts of no more than 250 words are due by April 1, 2005. 
See http://www.aaanet.org/press/an/0501General_Rules.htm#volunteered for more 
details.



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