Location & Facilities:

The Palau del Lloctinent is located in the heart of Barcelona’s Old City, between the Cathedral and the royal palace. Constructed in the 16^th century, it was originally the residence of the Catalan viceroys. Until the 1990s it housed the Archive of the Crown of Aragon. Completely renovated in 2005, the palace now serves as a conference and exhibition space.  The Summer Institute will be held on the second floor of the Palau, accessed via the elevator to the left of the security kiosk in the patio. We will have use of a conference room, a seminar room, and reading room, all air-conditioned and fully accessible.

The Palau is about 15 minutes by foot from the Campus del Mar residence.

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Course Structure:

The Institute combines colloquia, lectures, workshops and independent study.  Each participant will be expected to attend the formal study sessions, and work on a project of his or her own proposing (see below, for more information).

The course is divided into three broad thematic units (see below). There will be two faculty for each unit, each of whom will present one formal colloquium and moderate two workshop sections, each with 12 participants

The final week will consist of workshops under the guidance of the Co-Directors, and participant presentations.

In addition, guest faculty from Barcelona will give presentations on the Archive of the Crown of Aragon, and themes related to each unit.

There will be optional hands-on introductions to the Archive of the Crown of Aragon for those interested in undertaking archival research.

Two “field trips” are planned: a walking tour in Barcelona and a trip to Girona.  At the moment these are tentative, contingent on budgetary factors.  The Institute may not be able to cover the full cost of these activities.

The language of the workshops and colloquia will be English.

Units

• People & Spaces This unit sets the stage by considering the nature of the Mediterranean as a geographical and environmental entity and the impact this had on social, commercial, political, and cultural developments. What made the medieval Mediterranean the historical crucible in which such a tremendous array of influences converged? How were ethnic and communal identities conceived? Featuring Peregrine Horden and Steven A. Epstein.

• Religion & Culture This unit turns to the development of Mediterranean cultural and religious expression as a consequence of contact and dialogue between Christian, Muslim and Jewish traditions. Some questions guiding our inquiry will be: What factors shaped the diverse cultural encounters along the various frontiers? Why were some ideas, styles, and philosophies so successfully disseminated and others not? Why in some areas and in others not? Processes of adaptation and acculturation, it emerges, do not depend on friendly relations. Featuring Harvey Hames and Judith Cohen.

• Text & Image continues This unit will consider the Mediterranean as a zone of the adaptation, transformation, and transmission of modes of expression. Focusing on the relationship between social and cultural history, we will examine the role literary and visual languages play in processes of acculturation and innovation. Featuring Cynthia Robinons and Daniel Selden.

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Faculty & Organizers:

For detailed information regarding faculty and organizers, click here.

Brian A. Catlos (History, University of California Santa Cruz)
Sharon Kinoshita (Literature, University of California Santa Cruz)

Núria Silleras-Fernández (Spanish & Portuguese, University of Colorado at Boulder)

Judith Cohen (Music, York University)

Steven A. Epstein (History, University of Kansas)

Harvey Hames (History, Ben Gurion University)

Peregrine Horden (Medieval History, Royal Holloway, London)

Cynthia Robinson (Art History, Cornell University)

Daniel Selden (Literature, University of California Santa Cruz)

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Schedule:

The program has been designed in order to give ample time for participants to engage in their own work, and to fit with the Spanish schedule.
Most of the Institutes formal activities will take place between 4:30 and 7:30pm, Monday to Friday.
There will be occasional morning lectures, and a full day of orientation at the beginning.
The field trip to Girona will be a full-day affair.
Participants are required to take part in all of the formal activities of the Institute during the whole four weeks.
A detailed schedule will be posted on this site in March 2010.

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Bibliography and Course Materials:

Course material will be made available to participants prior to commencement of the Institute; we strongly suggest that you print this material and bring it with you to Barcelona. (This can be done in Barcelona as well).

A list of background readings, which Participants may find it helpful to read prior to the course, will be available here beginning in January 2010.

A full bibliography, of works pertaining to each unit can be downloaded here beginning in March 2010.

Course readings will be available to download here in June 2010.

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Projects:

Each participant will be expected to develop a project over the course of our four week Institute, some or all of which may be published in whole or part in print form or on the Mediterranean Seminar web page. Projects may take a number of forms depending on participants’ technical and linguistic skills and interests. This might include a synthetic, historiographical or theoretical essay based on secondary sources, a work of original research based on documents available online or at local archives, or a curricular project, such as a syllabus and lesson plans for an interdisciplinary Mediterranean Studies course. We suggest you familiarize yourself with the materials available in Barcelona as you develop your project proposal.  For online catalogs see, Facilities.

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Important: Generally, US citizens who wish to stay in Spain for tourist or business purposes for up to 90 days do not need a visa. They should travel with a round trip air ticket and a passport valid for a minimum of six months. To confirm this, and for visa information for foreign visitors to Spain, click here.

Disclaimer: Information provided on this site and the documents linked to it is provisional and subject to change without notice at the organizers’ discretion.  Neither the NEH, UCSC, nor the Mediterranean Seminar take responsibility for the content of external internet sites.