The UC Mediterranean Studies MRP is pleased to announce the conclusion of its first year’s program. The inaugural meeting, “Why the Mediterranean?” was held at UC Santa Cruz on 8 October 2010, featuring guest scholar David Abulafia (Cambridge University), who presented “Mediterranean History as Global History.” Workshop presenters included:

Sharon Kinoshita: “Locating the Medieval Mediterranean”

Brian Catlos: “‘Conveniencia’ or ‘the Convenience Principal’: A Model for Ethno-Religious Interaction in the Medieval Mediterranean”

Fred Astren: “Shadows of Jews in the Early Medieval Muslim Conquests: A Mediterranean Perspective”

There were 35 registrants (including 8 graduate students) from the UC campuses, San Francisco State University, University of Arizona, San Jose State University, California State University Long Beach, Stanford University, Rollins College, and Cambridge University.

The meeting took place over one day, with lively conversation following each presentation and a concluding round table in which we discussed the nature of the Mediterranean as a historical construct and the role of religious identity there.

The Winter 2011 workshop on “Court Cultures” took place at UC Santa Barbara on 18 February 2011, in conjunction with a one-day colloquium organized by Ed English and Carol Lansing. The workshop presentations were:

Jonathan Decter (Near Eastern and Judaic Studies, Brandeis University), “Before Caliphs and Kings: Jewish Courtiers in Medieval Iberia”

Jocelyn Sharlet (Comparative Literature, University of California, Davis), “All the Right Stuff: Gift Exchange, Competing Values, and the Political Elite in Medieval Arabic Literature”

Amy Aisen Kallender (History, Syracuse University), “Disentangling Family from State: France and Tunisia in the 19th Century”

Conference speakers included Dwight Reynolds (UCSB), Carol Lansing (UCSB), Heather Blurton (UCSB), Lara Tohme (Wellesley College), S. Peter Cowe (UCLA), Chris Wright (University of London), Christine Chism (UCLA), Joshua C. Birk (Smith College), and Florence Eliza Glaze (Coastal Carolina University).

There were 33 registrants (including seven graduate students) from the UC campuses, California State University Fullerton, San Francisco, and San Jose, Brandeis University, Brown University, Coastal Carolina University, University of Colorado Boulder, Penn State, Smith College, Syracuse University, and Wellesley College.

The meetings and conference made for an intense two-day experience, remarkable not only for the quality, strength, and originality of the papers presented and the ensuing discussion, but for the degree to which the various disciplinary approaches and chronological and geographic foci overlapped and complemented each other. Many participants remarked that it was among the best conferences they had attended.

The Spring 2011 workshop was organized by Baki Tezcan at UC Davis in collaboration with the Western Ottomanists’ Workshop. Cornell Fleischer (History, University of Chicago) delivered the keynote address: “The New Language of Empire in the Sixteenth-Century Mediterranean.” The workshop presentations were:

Emily Albu (Classics, UC Davis), “Mediterranean Lands and the Peutinger Map”

Jessica Ambler (Ph.D. Candidate, History of Art, UC Santa Barbara), “The City Represented: Colonia Concordia Iulia Karthago and Roman Remembering”

Cihan Yüksel Muslu (Historical Studies, University of Texas, Dallas), “Legacies of Exchange and Conflict: The Letter of a Prisoner (Ottoman and Mamluk Empires)”

WOW speakers and session chairs included: Ali Anooshahr (History, UC Davis), Nora Barakat (History, UC Berkeley), Pelin Basci (Turkish Studies, Portland State University), John Curry (History, University of Nevada, Las Vegas), Paula Daccarett (History, UC Santa Cruz), Murat Dagli (History, UC Berkeley), Linda Darling (History, University of Arizona), James Grehan (History, Portland State University), Heather Ferguson (History, Stanford), Hasan Kayali (History, UC San Diego), Sevim Kebeli (Near and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Washington), Selim Kuru (Near Eastern Languages and Civilization, University of Washington), Susan Miller (History, UC Davis), Gabriel Piterberg (History, UCLA), Melanie Tanielian (Ph.D. Candidate in History, UC Berkeley), Baki Tezcan (UC Davis), Speros Vryonis, Jr. (Emeritus of History, UCLA), Keith Watenpaugh (Religious Studies, UC Davis), Haghnar Watenpaugh (Art History, UC Davis), Fariba Zarinebaf (History, UC Riverside).

There were 35 attendees (including eight graduate students) from the UC campuses and the Graduate Theological Union, the Long Beach and San Francisco California State Universities, University of Arizona, University of Nevada Las Vegas, Portland State University, Stanford University, University of Texas Dallas, University of Washington, and Bogazici University in Turkey.

These meetings were particularly stimulating as they brought together a critical mass of Early Modern Ottomanists with specialists of other areas and periods, the result of which as a series of stimulating conversations and surprising synergies.

In addition, the MRP organized and co-sponsored events with the Jewish Studies Program at UC Santa Cruz including: Anna Sapir Abulafia (Cambridge University) and Joshua Schreier (Vassar College). On 7 October 2010 Dr. Sapir Abulafia presented “Doing the King’s Service: the Jews in Medieval England,” and on 13 January 2011, Professor Schreier presented “Arabs of the Jewish Faith: The Civilizing Mission in Colonial Algeria.”

On 30 March 2011 the MRP co-sponsored “Ethnic Identity in the Medieval Mediterranean,” a workshop held at UC Davis, featuring Brian Catlos and Baki Tezcan with commentary by Patricia Crone (Institute for Advanced Studies, Princeton University) and Katie Harris (UC Davis).

The Mediterranean Seminar/UCMRP now consists of over 300 scholarly affiliates in world-wide; over 40 institutions and businesses have supported and/or collaborate with us.

In addition, the ground work was laid for our Mediterranean Consortium. Along with Tom Burman (University of Tennessee), Nathalie Rothman (University of Toronto) and Mark Meyerson (University of Toronto), Brian Catlos has formed a Mediterranean Studies Textbook Writing Group, and Sharon Kinoshita continues to work on the Blackwell Companion to Mediterranean Studies with Peregrine Horden (Royal Holloway). We are delighted that in Fall 2010 participants of our latest NEH Summer Institute formed the Spain-North Africa Project (SNAP), an interdisciplinary forum for specialists of Iberia and the Maghrib, that is already a dynamic and active organization.