So Far, So Near: Italy, the Mediterranean and Africa

The program, under the scientific supervision of Massimo Carlo Giannini, Full Professor of Early Modern History at the University of Teramo and among the leading experts in the field, includes a cycle of nine lectures – to be held every Monday, starting on October 6 – and three study days dedicated to relations between Italy, the wider Mediterranean and Africa from the late Middle Ages to the contemporary age.

The initiative aims to overcome two entrenched interpretative paradigms: on the one hand, the idea of an absolute otherness between the two shores of the Mediterranean; on the other, the vision limited solely to the colonial framework. 

The purpose of the project is to respond to the need to create a series of opportunities that combine high-quality scientific research and dissemination around the theme of relations between Italy, the wider Mediterranean and Africa from the late Middle Ages to the contemporary age.
In particular, it will seek to overcome the two most persistent interpretative paradigms: that of absolute otherness between the two shores of the Mediterranean, on the one hand, and that of colonialism, on the other.

In recent decades our perception of Africa has, at least in part, changed several times. From an exotic continent to a land of wars and shady trafficking, from a reality with a strong colonial legacy to an economic and demographic space in growth, Africa has historically been and still is a complex, articulated, and by no means homogeneous world. In today’s difficult European, Mediterranean and global context, these training days aim to provide non-specialists with the essential elements to understand what the great continent has been in the past and what it is in the present.