Mediterranean Deja-vu: a return to the classics in the anthropology of a region is the title of the seminar by Professor Jon P. Mitchell (University of Sussex).
The seminar will be held on Monday 26 February at 18:00 at the Mediterranean Institute, Ir-Razzett tal-Ħursun.
Abstract
For an anthropologist of Southern Europe, recent events in two countries bordering the Mediterranean – Malta and Spain/Catalunya – have a decidedly nostalgic feel. Debates about patronage, clientelism and corruption were central to the Mediterraneanist agenda of the 1960s and 70s, but fell out of popularity as attention was turned towards Europeanisation and the migration crisis. Nationalism and separatism emerged centre stage in the Europeanist agenda of the 1980s and 90s, but again this rather ebbed away after the Yugoslav wars to be replaced by multiculturalism and neo-nationalism as research agendas. In the case of both corruption and nationalist separatism, the consolidation of the European Union appeared to at least promise the possibility of their eradication, but the recent death of Daphne Caruana Galizia in Malta, and the moves towards independence by the government of Catalunya have brought them back into the frame. This paper represents an attempt to think through the implications of these two sets of events, and how a return to more classical themes in the anthropology of the Mediterranean and Southern Europe might help us to understand them.
Entry to the Seminar is free of charge and open to the public. Refreshments will be served after the Seminar. Students are encouraged to attend.
