The purpose of this conference is to rethink traditional chronologies and geographies in order to reimagine the Mediterranean in expansive ways that will enable its integration into new accounts of the global war. In bringing together a group of scholars from around the world, our task will be to illuminate the unexpected connections, processes and moments of upheaval that made the “greater Mediterranean” the crucible of global conflict and a vast arena of great power contestation and revolutionary struggle stretching from the Iberian peninsula and the North African coast to the shores of the Balkans and the Middle East, where Turkish, Soviet and British strategic imperatives collided.
The wartime Mediterranean, embedded in a web of imperial connections, was not a self-sufficient or isolated unity. Instead, it was a vital part of a global network of theatres of war that posed a major challenge to military planners and political leaders. Describing and analysing the place of the Mediterranean in this global context will necessarily be a collaborative project, drawing on the work of numerous specialists in regional, national, colonial and imperial history.
The conference aims to reflect on the Mediterranean in World War II, combining the work of well-established scholars with that of younger researchers. It will highlight the interconnectedness of different regions and zones of combat, with the goal of bringing together contributions from all areas of the Mediterranean region, including narratives that take into account North African, Middle Eastern, Turkish, Balkan and Iberian experiences to create a deeper and richer understanding of the “long world war” as it unfolded in the Mediterranean between the Italian invasion of Ethiopia in 1935 and the conclusion of the Greek civil war in 1949. This process will also allow us to rethink the Mediterranean as an integrated geopolitical formation and to situate it within the broader global struggle that dominated the middle years of the twentieth century.
Therefore, we invite contributions from speakers who seek to take a comprehensive approach that can draw on diplomatic, military, institutional and social perspectives to form a more integrated and comprehensive picture of the Mediterranean during the conflict in all its central aspects.
Topics for proposals may include, but are not limited to:
- Political, strategic and military interactions across different theatres of war;
- The relationship between the Mediterranean and the other critical fronts including the Eastern Front, North-Western Europe, South Asia and the Pacific;
- The Mediterranean war as a clash of empires and models of imperial dominance;
- The war and the crisis of colonial rule in North Africa and the Middle East;
- The circulation of practices, models, actors and partisan fighters across different regions and theatres;
- Mass transnational population movements, international refugees and displacement campaigns;
- The Mediterranean sea as a nexus of connectivity and the naval and aerial wars to control it;
- Economic, strategic and logistical dimensions of the Mediterranean war;
- Global interactions within regional military occupation regimes;
- Histories of extra-regional forces and colonial troops active in the Mediterranean
Please submit a short (500 words maximum) paper proposal and a one-page CV to marcomaria.aterrano@unina.it by 22 December 2024.
Selected presenters will have meals and accommodation covered. Additionally, and conditional to obtaining further funding, partial or full reimbursement for travel expenses might become available at a later date.
The hosting committee aims at publishing a volume of papers drawn from the conference.
Scientific Committee: Marco Maria Aterrano (University of Naples Federico II), Andrew Buchanan (University of Vermont), Daniela Luigia Caglioti (University of Naples Federico II), Andrea D’Onofrio (University of Naples Federico II), Ruth Lawlor (Cornell University), Teodoro Tagliaferri (University of Naples Federico II).