CROSS CULTURAL COMMUNICATION, DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION IN ITALY AND THE MEDITERRANEAN MOD.2

As a compulsory component of the first year of the Bachelor’s Degree Programme in Italian and Mediterranean Studies, the course introduces students to the perspectives and methods of sociocultural anthropology. It approaches the Mediterranean as profoundly heterogenous space, both ecologically and culturally. Drawing on ethnographic approaches spanning text, film, photography, performance, and multimedia projects, we will consider the Mediterranean as it is historically and politically produced through borders and mobility, racialized labor, environmental transformation, as well as embodied political and artistic practices. Through ethnographic cases from southern Italy, the Adriatic, the central Mediterranean, and Venice, the course provides conceptual and methodological tools for critically examining cross-cultural communication, diversity, and inclusion. It thereby contributes to the interdisciplinary goals of the degree programme by bringing anthropology into dialogue with the arts, and a variety of contemporary social and environmental questions.

1. Knowledge and understanding
* To know the main themes and debates in the anthropology of Italy and the Mediterranean.
* To understand the Mediterranean as a heterogeneous space
* To acquire key concepts related to cross-cultural communication, diversity, inclusion, representation, and the positionality of the observer.
* To know basic techniques of ethnographic observation and interpretation.

2. Applying knowledge and understanding
* To identify and contextualize relevant ethnographic cases from Italy and the Mediterranean.
* To apply anthropological concepts to the analysis of texts, images, and landscapes.
* To use basic ethnographic tools to observe and interpret social and environmental relations.

3. Making judgments
* To recognize and value the perspectives of differently positioned social actors.
* To analyse critically relations of power, inequality, and the politics of representation.
* To reflect on the ethical and political implications of producing ethnographic and visual knowledge.

4. Communication skills
* To synthesize and present ideas clearly through written, oral, visual, and multimedia forms.
* To formulate a coherent anthropological argument using appropriate terminology.
* To participate constructively in cross-cultural discussion and collaborative analysis.

5. Learning skills
* To develop increasing autonomy in reading and interpreting ethnographic materials.
* To connect theoretical concepts with concrete cases, observations, and visual materials.
* To design and complete a short multimodal project grounded in research, critical analysis, and experimentation.

No prerequisite knowledge is required.

UNSETTLED MEDITERRANEANS: Ecologies, Imaginaries, and Unequal Worlds

The course is organized into six interconnected modules:

1. Anthropology and the Mediterranean
The Mediterranean will be approached not as a unified cultural area, but as a heterogeneous space constituted through connections, discontinuities, and relations. We will explore the core methods of anthropology (writing, observing, listening) and propose ethnographic approaches to cultural and ecological Mediterranean multiplicities.

2. Ethnography of the Senses and the Production of the South
Here, we will explore anthropologies of the shifting sensory transformations of Mediterranean environments, and their relationship to European modernity. The course zooms in on the “Southern Question” and the historical production of the Mezzogiorno as an internal space of alterity; anthropology’s role in representing the Italian South.

3. Borders, Migration, and the Black Mediterranean
This module focuses on racialized mobilities, hospitality, citizenship, migrant farm labour, and commodity frontiers. Particular attention will be given to relationships among race, labour, and belonging in Italy and Europe more generally.

4. Seas, Routes, and Unequal Mobilities
The Adriatic and central Mediterranean as social and political fields shaped by migration, tourism, and border regimes. The sea will be analyzed as a space of connection, separation, and unequal freedom of movement.

5. Toxic and Industrial Landscapes
Environmental violence and ecological justice in Taranto, the Land of Fires, Porto Marghera, and the Venetian lagoon. The module considers artistic, political, and everyday responses to contamination and industrial transformation.

CORE COMPULSORY READINGS

Short texts or selected extracts from the following works will be assigned:

* Holdermann, Simon, Christoph Lange, Michaela Schäuble, and Martin Zillinger. 2021. “Rethinking the Mediterranean: Extending the Anthropological Laboratory Across Nested Mediterranean Zones.”
* Seremetakis, C. Nadia. 1994. “The Memory of the Senses, Part I: Marks of the Transitory.” In The Senses Still.
* Schneider, Jane, ed. 1998. Introduction to Italy’s Southern Question: Orientalism in One Country.
* de Martino, Ernesto. The Land of Remorse. Selected passages.
* Raeymaekers, Timothy. 2024. The Natural Border: Bounding Migrant Farmwork in the Black Mediterranean. Introduction and selected chapters.
* Danewid, Ida. 2017. “White Innocence in the Black Mediterranean: Hospitality and the Erasure of History.”
* Ben-Yehoyada, Naor. 2017. The Mediterranean Incarnate. Introduction and selected passages.
* Armiero, Marco. 2021. Wasteocene: Stories from the Global Dump. Selected chapter.
* Pisapia, Jasmine Clotilde. 2026. “Poisonous Images: Taranto’s Environmental Crisis between the Visible and the Invisible.”

The precise texts and pages required for the examination will be indicated and made available on Moodle.

OPTIONAL READINGS AND REFERENCE BIBLIOGRAPHY

The following works constitute a bibliography for further study. Additional materials, including articles, extracts, and audiovisual works, will be indicated on Moodle.

Anthropology and the Mediterranean
Ben-Yehoyada, N., Cabot, H., and Silverstein, P. A. 2020. “Remapping Mediterranean Anthropology.” History and Anthropology 31(1): 1–21.
Chambers, I. 2008. Mediterranean Crossings: The Politics of an Interrupted Modernity. Duke University Press.
Chambers, I., and Cariello, M. 2025. The Mediterranean Question. punctum books.
Herzfeld, M. 1987. Anthropology through the Looking-Glass. Cambridge University Press.
Horden, P., and Purcell, N. 2000. The Corrupting Sea. Blackwell.
Pina-Cabral, J. de. 1989. “The Mediterranean as a Category of Regional Comparison.” Current Anthropology 30(3): 399–406.

The Italian South, senses, and performance

Bayraktar, S. 2020. “Performing Resistance.” Zeitschrift für Ethnologie 145(2): 293–316.
Lüdtke, K. 2009. Dances with Spiders. Berghahn.
Moe, N. 2002. The View from Vesuvius. University of California Press.
Noyes, D. 2003. Fire in the Plaça. University of Pennsylvania Press.
Pizza, G. 2004. “Tarantism and the Politics of Tradition in Contemporary Salento.” In Memory, Politics and Religion.

Borders, race, labour, and mobility

Black Mediterranean Collective, eds. 2021. The Black Mediterranean: Bodies, Borders and Citizenship. Palgrave Macmillan.
Campt, T. M. 2017. Listening to Images. Duke University Press.
Dalakoglou, D. 2017. The Road. Manchester University Press.
De Genova, N., ed. 2017. The Borders of “Europe”. Duke University Press.
Elliot, A. 2021. The Outside: Migration as Life in Morocco. Indiana University Press.
Green, S. 2005. Notes from the Balkans. Princeton University Press.
Hawthorne, C. 2022. Contesting Race and Citizenship. Cornell University Press.
Pandolfo, S. 2007. “The Burning.” Anthropological Theory 7(3): 329–363.
Vietti, F. 2017. Unexpected Encounters. Berghahn.

Sea, water, and unequal ecologies

Barca, S. 2010. Enclosing Water. White Horse Press.
Heller, C., and Pezzani, L. 2017. “Drifting Images, Liquid Traces.” antiAtlas Journal 2.
Muehlebach, A. 2023. A Vital Frontier. Duke University Press.
Sharpe, C. 2016. In the Wake. Duke University Press.
Stamatopoulou-Robbins, S. 2019. Waste Siege. Stanford University Press.

Audiovisual and artistic works

Afsah, Y. 2025. Jarramplas.
Akomfrah, J. 2015. Vertigo Sea.
Alzakout, A., and Abdulwahed, K. 2020. Purple Sea.
Barrada, Y. 2018. Agadir.
Carpignano, J. 2015. Mediterranea.
Dreschke, A., and Schäuble, M. 2024. Tarantism Revisited.
Heller, C., and Pezzani, L. 2014. Liquid Traces.
Julien, I. 2007. Western Union: Small Boats.
Khalili, B. 2008–2011. The Mapping Journey Project.
Manna, J. 2022. Foragers.
Maroufi, R. 2019. Bab Sebta.
Sedira, Z. 2008. MiddleSea.
Vicari, D. 2012. La nave dolce.
Yimer, D. 2015. ASMAT.

The detailed assessment methods are currently being determined. Please consult this page again at a later date, as further information will be published shortly.

oral

The instructor is responsible for ensuring the authenticity and originality of all examinations and coursework. In cases of suspected academic misconduct, an additional on-site assessment may be required during the exams, which may differ from the standard format.

0–17: FAIL
Insufficient understanding of the course themes and concepts; an incomplete project or one that does not meet the assignment requirements; inadequate use of the readings and weak integration of visual and textual materials.

18–20: PASS
Basic understanding of the course themes. The project remains largely descriptive, demonstrates limited analytical ability, and establishes only weak connections among concepts, images, and texts.

21–23: SATISFACTORY
Adequate understanding of the course themes and readings. The project is coherent, though not always sufficiently developed, and demonstrates a satisfactory capacity for interpretation, synthesis, and the integration of visual and textual materials.

24–26: GOOD
Good knowledge of the course themes and appropriate use of the readings. The project presents a clear argument, a coherent structure, and a successful integration of anthropological analysis, images, and writing.

27–28: VERY GOOD
In-depth knowledge of the themes and debates addressed in the course. The project develops an articulate and critical analysis, makes effective use of the readings, and constructs a meaningful and methodologically informed relationship among form, images, and text.

29–30: EXCELLENT
Broad and in-depth knowledge of the course content. The project is rigorous, original, and well structured; it demonstrates independent judgement, strong critical abilities, and a creative and convincing use of visual and textual forms.

30 CUM LAUDE: OUTSTANDING
The project demonstrates an advanced command of anthropological and interdisciplinary debates, exceptional analytical ability, and a particularly original, ethically attentive, and formally accomplished approach.

The course consists in frontal lectures with the use of powerpoint, video, diagrams and photographs. It also includes students’ class presentations followed by collective discussions. Students are welcome to ask questions during the lectures.

During the semester, additional activities may be organized outside regular class hours, including field visits to Porto Marghera, screenings, and talks by guest speakers as part of the LABDEA seminar series. The schedule, participation arrangements, and further information will be communicated in due course.