The Mediterranean has witnessed the circulation of ideas, people, and goods between Northern Africa and Southern Europe across the centuries. Both during times of conflict and cooperation, colonization, religious expansion, and human migrations have shaped the lives of individuals and the history of cultures. Current migrations and conditions associated with globalization date back to the centuries of contact that began with the Berber and Arabic conquest of the Iberian Peninsula in the 8th Century and continue with the colonial and post-colonial realities of the 19th and 20th centuries. The Mediterranean Mosaic will focus on migrations between Morocco, France and Spain, exploring the multiple and interacting identities embodied by individuals, communities, regions, and the nation-state. We will examine the creation of transnational communities, ethnic and religious tensions and cooperation, philosophical orientations to diversity, and social policy.
