NEH Summer Institute for College and University
Professors
July 4–July 31, 2010 • Barcelona (Spain)
Projects
Praise for the Program
Collaborating & Supporting Institutions
This Summer Institute was designed to help rethink the history of the Middle Ages (1000–1500) through the optic of the Mediterranean. As a region whose history of connectivity can be documented over two and a half millennia, the Mediterranean has in recent years become the focus of renewed interest in a number of disciplines. Compared to conventional histories of Western Civilization, these approaches shift focus from the study of discrete entities—political states (typically those of northwestern Europe), ethnic or religious groups, cultural traditions—to a study of their interconnectedness and interaction. The program emphasized patterns of exchange and circulation (of people, goods, and ideas), with special attention to questions of religious and ethnic pluralisms, cultural contact, commerce, hybridity, transculturation, and the negotiation of identities. This conceptual and thematic shift is an important step in reassessing the role of medieval Europe in the emergence of the modern world, with which we aim to inform both scholarly research and post-secondary teaching.
This program brought together 24 professors from American universities and colleges for an intensive four-week Institute at the 16th-century Viceroy's palace in the heart of Barcelona's medieval city. Eight distinguished faculty members from a range of discilpines presented lectures and led seminars, which were supplemented by presentations by leading Spansih scholars, archivists and curators. Over the month of July participants had the opportunity to collaborate, to pursue the individual projects which they had proposed to undertake, to reconsider their own work in light of the Mediterranean, and to debate and discuss the nature of Mediterranean history.
It was a program which was made possible by the direct support of the National Endowment for the Humanities, and by the generous support of over a dozen corporate, governmental, cultural and educational institutions, in the US and Spain.
The Institute—like the previous version held in 2008—was a great success; both participants and faculty characterized the experience as stimulating, transformative and a great deal of fun. A third iteration of this Summer Institute is scheduled to be held in July 2012.
“The Summer 2010 NEH Institute on Cultural Hybridities in the Medieval Mediterranean was, without doubt, one of the best professional experiences I have ever had. As a direct result of the month in Barcelona, I am in the process of re-thinking my own conceptual approach to various projects I am currently working on. Moreover, through contacts that I made at the Institute I expect to soon embark on three collaborative academic ventures. The NEH Institute thus seems to already be having an impact on my scholarship, and there is no doubt that my pedagogy will benefit from the experience.”
“The directors (Brian Catlos and Sharon Kinoshita) did an outstanding job of creating an academic environment that was rigorous and intense, yet simultaneously supportive and collegial.”
“This was a wonderful experience. I will immediately be incorporating many ideas from the Institute into my classes, beginning with this fall. Not only were lectures, readings and seminars helpful, but the curricular and pedagogical insights of the participants (at all levels) have been invaluable.”
“The Archives of the Crown of Aragon treated us with remarkably generosity -- what a pleasure to be able to meet in such a comfortable and august setting!”
“The contacts I made and conversations I participated in with other institute participants have already resulted in plans to present together at an upcoming conference and to build a network of scholars interested in North African and Iberian studies.”
“This was one of the most rewarding academic experiences in my life.”
*all comments taken from the anonymous participant survey administered by the NEH
Collaborating & Supporting Institutions
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