Late Medieval and Early Modern Migration Routes and Identity Spaces in the Mediterranean
Scientific Coordinators: Houssem Eddine Chachia, Gerard Wiegers, Luis Bernabé Pons, Emir O. Filipović, Borja Franco, Antonio Urquízar Herrera and Neila Saadi
Venue and Date: University of Tunis, Tunis (Tunisia) – June 15-17, 2022
Link to the Training School program
Training School call:
Over the past decades, there has been a growing interest among scholars in analysing the early modern migration routes and identity spaces in the Mediterranean. The Sephardic and Morisco diasporas are a typical example to study the forced movement of persons, but also of ideas and expertise. The aim of this training school is to discuss those issues from different and complementary perspectives, including social, cultural history, but also heritage and architecture, and to question the integrations of those religious and cultural minorities into Early Modern North African societies: the difficulties of their social assimilation, how their identities developed in this context, their contribution to the development of host societies, etc.
Main objectives of the activity: a) To study the interfaith migration between Europe and North Africa during the Late Medieval and Early Modern periods; b) To discuss about the trade, exchange and mobility of objects and knowledge in the Mediterranean basin; c) To analyse how these phenomena had an effect in the creation of individual and collective identities; d) To develop a student network on migration and Islamic legacy in Europe and North Africa; and e) To promote a dialogue between junior and senior scholars.
Panel 1: Migrations of Moriscos and Sephardic Jews in North Africa. Chair: Luis Bernabé, University of Alicante. In this panel we will analyse the different migratory flows that took place in a multiethnic and intercultural Mediterranean of converts from Islam and Judaism, sometimes trying to escape Christian repression and other times looking for new ways of cultural development and social positioning. These routes will be mapped in time and space, discussing different individual cases that will help us devise a methodological framework. We will analyze as well the Making of Memory inspired by these processes, both in Early Modern Age and nowadays.
Panel 2: Objects that travel. Chair: Gerard Wiegers, University of Amsterdam. This panel will study the mobility of objects and knowledge in the Mediterranean linked to the aforementioned religious minorities, especially the Moriscos, but also Sephardim and converted Christians. The routes they followed, in some cases back and forth, and how these minorities constructed their personal and collective identities through their possession of objects and knowledge will be considered. The workshop focuses especially on manuscripts (religious and non-religious) brought by the Moriscos from the Iberian Peninsula to Tunisia and circulated among the first generations of migrants and their descendants.
Panel 3:
Places and Spaces of Migrants. Chair: Houssem Eddine Chachia, University of
Tunis. The objective of this panel is twofold: to reconstruct the tangible and
intangible heritage imprint left by the aforementioned communities in North
Africa, especially in Tunisia, and to analyze the integration of these two
groups, as religious and cultural minorities, in the social fabric of North
African countries.
Late Medieval and Early Modern Migration Routes and Identity Spaces in the Mediterranean
Scientific Coordinators: Houssem Eddine Chachia, Gerard Wiegers, Luis Bernabé Pons, Emir O. Filipović, Borja Franco, Antonio Urquízar Herrera and Neila Saadi
Venue and Date: University of Tunis, Tunis (Tunisia) – June 15-17, 2022
Link to the Training School program
Training School call:
Over the past decades, there has been a growing interest among scholars in analysing the early modern migration routes and identity spaces in the Mediterranean. The Sephardic and Morisco diasporas are a typical example to study the forced movement of persons, but also of ideas and expertise. The aim of this training school is to discuss those issues from different and complementary perspectives, including social, cultural history, but also heritage and architecture, and to question the integrations of those religious and cultural minorities into Early Modern North African societies: the difficulties of their social assimilation, how their identities developed in this context, their contribution to the development of host societies, etc.
Main objectives of the activity: a) To study the interfaith migration between Europe and North Africa during the Late Medieval and Early Modern periods; b) To discuss about the trade, exchange and mobility of objects and knowledge in the Mediterranean basin; c) To analyse how these phenomena had an effect in the creation of individual and collective identities; d) To develop a student network on migration and Islamic legacy in Europe and North Africa; and e) To promote a dialogue between junior and senior scholars.
Panel 1: Migrations of Moriscos and Sephardic Jews in North Africa. Chair: Luis Bernabé, University of Alicante. In this panel we will analyse the different migratory flows that took place in a multiethnic and intercultural Mediterranean of converts from Islam and Judaism, sometimes trying to escape Christian repression and other times looking for new ways of cultural development and social positioning. These routes will be mapped in time and space, discussing different individual cases that will help us devise a methodological framework. We will analyze as well the Making of Memory inspired by these processes, both in Early Modern Age and nowadays.
Panel 2: Objects that travel. Chair: Gerard Wiegers, University of Amsterdam. This panel will study the mobility of objects and knowledge in the Mediterranean linked to the aforementioned religious minorities, especially the Moriscos, but also Sephardim and converted Christians. The routes they followed, in some cases back and forth, and how these minorities constructed their personal and collective identities through their possession of objects and knowledge will be considered. The workshop focuses especially on manuscripts (religious and non-religious) brought by the Moriscos from the Iberian Peninsula to Tunisia and circulated among the first generations of migrants and their descendants.
Panel 3: Places and Spaces of Migrants. Chair: Houssem Eddine Chachia, University of Tunis. The objective of this panel is twofold: to reconstruct the tangible and intangible heritage imprint left by the aforementioned communities in North Africa, especially in Tunisia, and to analyze the integration of these two groups, as religious and cultural minorities, in the social fabric of North African countries.