In the last decades, scholars have devoted increasing attention to the study of migration from Antiquity to the present. As far as Mediterranean history is concerned, examples range from the organized slave trade (Fiume 2004) to the experience of individuals who crossed geographical and cultural borders (Siebenhüner 2008). From the late 1990s, furthermore, there have been increasing attempts to analyse people’s movement before the 19th century with terms and concepts derived from sociological, demographic and policy-oriented research on contemporary migration, such as: “free versus forced migration”, “refugees”, etc. (Lucassen, Lucassen & Manning 2010). In fact, for a long time now, migration has been a central topic for disciplines as diverse as as sociology, political science, anthropology, history, literary / religious studies and economics, with each of these adopting a wide set of methodologies and theories.

Departing from these premises, the workshop aims (1) to foster greater interaction between specialists in different fields of migration studies; and (2) to explore aspects of continuity and change across different periods in Mediterranean history. We have been fortunate to secure the participation of internal and external experts from a range of disciplines.

Topics to be discussed include, but are not limited to:

- Which sources, methods, theories and concepts can be used in the study of migration?

- Is it possible to extend the use of categories elaborated by research on present-day migration to mobility in the Mediterranean at other times (and vice-versa)?

- What are the links between migration, ethnicity, politics, economics and religion in diachronic perspective?

- Which new types of source materials and opportunities are offered by digital tools – such as GIS?

A full list of papers and speakers appears on our programme page.