The Mediterranean is not merely an inland sea; it constitutes a shifting frontier, a space of exchanges and conflicts, and a laboratory in which global policies of mobility and restriction are continuously tested. In a context characterized by the proliferation of walls and borders, the European Union’s strategies of externalizing border control, and an increasingly violent apartheid imposed on human mobility, it becomes both urgent and necessary to rethink this space from a grounded, critical, and non-Eurocentric perspective, conceiving of this sea not solely as a domain of absolute sovereignty, but also as a vital lifeline.
The advanced training, organized by the University of Parma (Italy) and the University of Sousse (Tunisia), and hosted by the Border Studies Research Group (BSRG), seeks to contribute to this intellectual endeavor. It aims to foster an in-depth debate on the dynamics and stakes of bordering practices, while creating a space for training, reflection, and collective creativity that resists the “apartheid of borders” and aspires to articulate a Mediterranean premised on solidarity, justice, and shared responsibility.
Situated within the field of Critical Global Studies, this program underscores the necessity of interdisciplinary approaches that bridge the psychic and the political aspects, with the purpose of legitimizing and amplifying narratives and and knowledge that emerge from the Global South.
