Mediterrasians: Affinities in Society, Geography, History, Culture, University of Malta, February 16, 2017

The Mediterranean Institute at the University of Malta is seeking papers for a one-day conference, “Mediterrasians: Affinities in Society, Geography, History, Culture,” organised by the Mediterranean Institute, University of Malta, in collaboration with the Institute for Mediterranean Studies, Busan University of Foreign Studies, to be held at the University of Malta on 16 February 2017.

‘Mediterrasians’ is a one-day conference with a transdisciplinary brief: to explore the modes of connectivity that, in diverse ways and through myriad perspectives, link the Asian continent to the Mediterranean basin. Starting from an ethos of people-to-people relations across the two geographic zones, the conference will tap into a range of scholarly interests that explore their connections that go far beyond the mere relation of the two cartographies and their geo-physical proximity. ‘Mediterrasians’ will look into questions of shared and diversified material cultures, intertwined historiographies, travel writing, modes of alterity, otherness and othering in cultural and humanistic representation, the connection of political, communal and cultural imaginaries, intersections in geo- politics, geo-political relations and economies, as well as modes of cultural translation through a transnational purview.

Researchers focusing on any aspect of connection, affinity and relation, as well as any period of analysis, of the interface between Asia and the Mediterranean are welcome to submit their proposals for a 20/25 minute presentation.