(Movement): Session at the European Association for Urban History Conference: Cities in Motion 2020

This session aims looking at different ways of “being Mediterranean” in the context of different Mediterranean cities, relaying primarily on stories of migration and embracing the issues of attachment, displacement, relocation of persons and families. The aim is to shed light on the political history of Mediterranean cities through the lenses of life stories in an urban setting.

The Mediterranean region reserves rich possibilities of research that encapsulates many important aspects of world history; connections, disconnections or reconnections between societies/cultures through space, religion, empires, colonization and resistance as well as movements of the people.  Particularly, studies focusing on the interaction between Mediterranean cities through the human agency may enable us better understanding what “makes” the Mediterranean what it is.Methodologically speaking this session will focus on micro identities that represent certain cases, stories or narratives that are seen as the crystallization of a given time and space under specific conditions. Hence these stories are important to understand the structural processes from the angle of the individual perspectives.

Possible Themes of Discussion:

  • Human mobility within the Mediterranean region
  • The interaction of religious and philosophical traditions
  • Stories crossing the issues of modernism, orientalism, occidentalism
  • Coexistence and conflict of cultures in Cities
  • Mediterranean Limbo Between East and West
  • The formation of Multi-cultural or Cross-cultural cities
  • The Encounter of Empires: Stories of resistance to colonization
  • The Mobility caused by Decolonization
  • The Role of the Merchants in the Formation and Reformation of the “Mediterranean”
  • Neoliberal Conception of Urban Space in Mediterranean Cities: Cities And Stories As Trademarks
  • Spokesperson: Sezgi  Durgun Özkan, Marmara University
  • Co-organizer(s): Neslişah Başaran Lotz, Işık University | Zuhal Mert Uzuner, Marmara University
  • Keywords: Mediterreanean | Mobility | Cities and stories
  • Time period: Modern period
  • Topic(s): Political | Cultural
  • Study area: More than one continent