The Mediterranean has long been a space where questions of mobility, colonial legacies, cultural exchange, and political transformation intersect. Against the backdrop of contemporary geopolitical, humanitarian, and environmental challenges, it also offers a critical perspective on the past, present, and future of Europe and the European Union.
On May 15, 2026, this special edition of the ValEUs Lecture Series, Europe and the Mediterranean Challenge, brought together leading scholars from Europe, the United States, and Turkey to explore the conceptual, artistic, political, transcultural, and (inter)disciplinary challenges the Mediterranean poses to Europe.
The event formed part of an ongoing ValEUs research collaboration and was co-organized by Sadia Abbas (Rutgers University) and Laura Leonardi (University of Florence). Through keynote lectures and thematic sessions, participants discussed coloniality, migration, climate change, humanitarianism, cosmopolitanism, mobility, and cultural circulation, highlighting the Mediterranean as a key site for rethinking Europe in a rapidly changing world.
The detailed workshop programme and livestream recording are available below. The latter is presented in two parts.
Iain Chambers, The Mediterranean: A Colonial Lake
Belinda Davis, Extreme Climate Events and Socio-Political Change in the Mediterranean: An Historical Perspective
Khaled Mattawa, Reflections on a Poetic Practice from the Mediterranean
Moderator: Sadia Abbas
Sadia Abbas, Who Goes There? The Mediterranean and the Crisis of Europe
Marta Cariello, Metaphors and Wakes: Notes on the Epistemics of the Deadly Crossing
Moderator: Amir Moosavi
Paolo Novak, Asylum Infrastructure as a House of Mirrors
Silvia Salvatici, The History of Humanitarianism: A View from Southern Europe
Moderator: Laura Leonardi
Ayhan Kaya, Istanbul as a Mediterranean Rhizome: Mobility, Multiplicity, and the Reconfiguration of Europe
Laura Leonardi, Meridian Cosmopolitanism: Reframing Europe and the Mediterranean
Beatrice Falcucci, The Second-Hand Sea: Circulation, Appropriation, and Reinterpretation of Objects Across the Mediterranean
Moderator: Belinda Davis
Part 1
Part 2
Participating Scholars:
- Sadia Abbas (Rutgers University)
- Marta Cariello (Università degli Studi della Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli”)
- Iain Chambers (Università di Napoli L’Orientale)
- Belinda Davis (Rutgers University)
- Beatrice Falcucci (Università di Firenze)
- Ayhan Kaya (Istanbul Bilgi University)
- Laura Leonardi (Università di Firenze)
- Khaled Mattawa (University of Michigan, Ann Arbor)
- Paolo Novak (SOAS University of London)
- Silvia Salvatici (Università di Firenze)
ValEUs Lecture Series
