Harry Kashdan, Postdoctoral Researcher in the Global Mediterranean, is very excited about The Global Mediterranean Conference, a two-day conference on all things Mediterranean that will take place at Ohio State during April 24-25, 2020. Organized in conjunction with The Mediterranean Seminar, the conference is one of the many initiatives of The Global Mediterranean Project, which launched at Ohio State in Autumn 2018 with financial support from The Humanities Institute.
The Global Mediterranean Project brings together faculty and graduate students from units and departments across campus, and creates a space to discuss, explore, and propel the new field of Mediterranean Studies. With leadership from Dana Renga, Associate Professor in the Department of French and Italian, and Johanna Sellman, Assistant Professor in the Department of Near Eastern Literatures and Cultures, and Kashdan as the lead organizer, the project emphasizes community engagement, public programming, university events, and innovative coursework focused on the Mediterranean. The Project allows faculty and students in this field to study topics by clusters and themes, rather by geography, and to create conversation and collaboration beyond their home departments.
Spring semester was a productive time for Kashdan and members of the project. They held monthly reading group meetings where faculty and staff could discuss new work in Mediterranean studies. The graduate students have organized a Working Group to discuss work, workshop papers, and share ideas. There are many topics of interest among members of this group, including Migration Studies, Turkish Group, and Global Mediterranean Studies, but since membership is still growing, for now they all meet together. A web presence for the project was also created this spring. You can check it out at https://u.osu.edu/globalmediterranean, and find faculty bios, even announcements, and a database of Mediterranean courses offered at Ohio State. Finally, the group is focused on course planning by proposing new courses, discussing possibilities for co-teaching Mediterranean courses across multiple departments, and thinking about offering a certificate in Mediterranean Studies.
One of the highlights of the semester was a visit by anthropologist and historian Leila Hudson. Leila Hudson is Associate Professor in the School of Middle Eastern and North African Studies at the University of Arizona, where she teaches courses on gender, political economy, media, conflict and migration in the Arab and Islamic world. She presented on “Syrian Trajectories from Damascus to Euroland: Trans Mediterranean Assemblages.” Her talk was followed by a panel, organized by Danielle Schoon, a member of the The Global Mediterranean Project and a lecturer in the Department of Near Eastern Literatures and Cultures. The event drew a huge audience and was “a great example of collaboration” between graduate students and faculty and among departments, says Kashdan.
A number of exciting events are planned for the 2019-2010 academic year, but the one that is especially on everyone’s mind, is the Global Mediterranean Conference. The conference will feature keynote speak Alan Mikhail, Professor of History at Yale University, dedicate a day for workshopping papers by young scholars, and feature a more traditional conference and round table on the second day. It will provide discourse of medieval, classical, early modern, and contemporary issues in Mediterranean Studies. This will be a rare opportunity to have a broad historical perspective in one room, to interact with many scholars in one day, and to discuss key questions in the field. Kashdan hopes that the conference will connect with the campus and other initiatives at Ohio State. Co-sponsorships have already been secured from 14 different units.
During the autumn of 2019, the Department of French and Italian will offer two courses focused on Mediterranean Studies. Schoon will teach an undergraduate GE course on “Mediterranean Voyages: Migration and Travel” (cross-listed Italian/Comparative Studies 3052). Kashdan will teach a graduate seminar on “The Middle Sea: Theories of the Mediterranean” (French/Italian 8602). A full-list of courses that are part of the Global Mediterranean program is available on their webpage.
Harry Kashdan received a Ph.D. from Michigan University in 2018. He became interested in the field of Mediterranean Studies by taking a class on One Thousand and One Nights as an undergraduate student. He enjoyed the subject matter and professor, and continued taking courses on the subject. Kashdan considers himself lucky to be one of the few people who were actually trained in Mediterranean Studies because it is such a new field.
