The Center for Italian Studies at Stony Brook University is presenting “The Idea of the Mediterranean,” an international conference that will explore what the Mediterranean region represented in the Age of Progress and what it may represent in the Era of Geopolitical Re-alliances and Globalization. The conference, which is free and open to the public, will be held November 12 through November 14 at the Charles B. Wang Center, Lecture Hall 2.
The Mediterranean is the cradle of civilizations, with a unique history of giving birth to Western cultures, three worldwide religions and pathways to the Orient. An organic and autonomous Mediterranean identity may not exist as such today; but in the collective imagination of the people of the world and especially in the last two centuries with migrations from the Mediterranean area settling throughout the entire world, there exists a “popolo mediterraneo.”
Globalization has made evident the importance of preserving culture and the development of a consciousness that especially constitutes a matchless resource for the nations of the Mediterranean and the new Europe. Because of what has been happening in the last few months, the geopolitical disorders regarding the issues of borders, transnationalism, mobility and migration of the Mediterranean especially have attracted increasingly more attention.
This conference will attempt to recognize the value of the Mediterranean basin as a region having an original culture capable of connecting many other fragmented cultures, and set the stage for an intellectually exciting forum for new ideas and new knowledge.
The conference will include presentations by international scholars and government officials connected to states of the Mediterranean. For a program and schedule, visit the website or call (631) 632-7444.
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