Course Description
The eastern Mediterranean basin is a region of fusions and contrasts: seas, beaches, and islands; the center of activity and religious devotion for the three Abrahamic religions; numerous political entities and nation-states; a multitude of languages; and even more ethnic groups. This region’s reality is one of close contact with various ‘others,’ leading to both tolerance and acceptance, as well as aversion to strangers. By focusing on the ports, where these fusions occurred, the course peels back the different layers of these complexities, from late Antiquity to the 21st century. The reading materials and class discussions will primarily focus on, but are not limited to, the cities of Venice, Genoa, Thessaloniki, Constantinople/Istanbul, Izmir, Beirut, Acre, Jaffa, Gaza, and Alexandria.

Course outcomes
Students will learn to think critically about the terms “the Mediterranean Basin” and “the Eastern Mediterranean” as historical and analytical units. They will understand the human-environment relationship between sea and land. Students will also discuss attitudes toward the “other” and hybrid identities in various historical contexts. Finally, they will consider the impact of nationalistic claims to exclusive identity on multiculturalism in the Eastern Mediterranean and connect these discussions to contemporary popular culture.

Assessment
active contributors to class discussions (30% of the final grade);
a 10-minute presentation of a piece of popular culture related to the course content (10% of the final grade);
take home exam at the end of the semester (60% of the final grade).

Reading materials and documentaries
These include, for instance, the following articles and book chapters from:
• Bartov, Omer and Eric Weitz. Eds. Shatterzone of Empires: Coexistence and Violence in the German, Habsburg, Russian, and Ottoman Borderlands. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2013.
• Bosker, M., Brakman, S., Garretsen, H., De Jong, H., & Schramm, M. “Ports, Plagues and Politics: Explaining Italian City Growth 1300–1861,” European Review of Economic History 12 (2008), 97-131.
• Braudel, Fernand. The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II, trans. S. Reynolds. New York: Harper & Row, 1972.
• Driessen, Henk. “Mediterranean Port Cities: Cosmopolitanism Reconsidered,”
History and Anthropology 16 (2005), 129-141.
• Epstein, Steven A. Purity Lost: Transgressing Boundaries in the Eastern Mediterranean, 1000-1400. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006.
• Fusaro, Maria. Political Economies of Empire in the Early Modern Mediterranean: The Decline of Venice and the Rise of England, 1450–1700. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015.
• Fuhrmann, Malte. Port Cities of the Eastern Mediterranean: Urban culture in the Late Ottoman Empire. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020.
• Ghezzi, Renato. “North Italian Ports and the Levant in the 16th and 17th Centuries,” In: Giampiero Nigro (ed.), Reti marittime come fattori dell’integrazione europea / Maritime Networks as a Factor in European Integration. Firenze: Firenze University Press, 2019. 495-505.
• Ivetic, Egidio. History of the Adriatic: A Sea and Its Civilization, trans. G. Ludbrook. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2022.
• Kolluoğlu, Biray and Meltem Toksöz. Eds. Cities of the Mediterranean: From the Ottomans to the Present Day. London: Tauris, 2010.
• Leiser, Gary. Prostitution in the Eastern Mediterranean World: The Economics of Sex in the Late Antique and Medieval Middle East. London: Tauris, 2017.
• Mansel, Philip. Levant: Splendour and Catastrophe on the Mediterranean.
London: John Murray, 2010.
• Mazower, Mark. Salonica, City of Ghosts: Christians, Muslims and Jews 1430- 1950. New York: A.A. Knopf, 2004.
• Sher, Roy. My Sweet Canary, a doco film on the rebetiko singer Roza Eskenazi, 2011.
• “History of a Mediterranean Superpower: The Rise of Venice,” and “History of a Mediterranean Superpower: Rise & Fall of Venice,” on Epic History YouTube channel.
• “Lost Worlds of the Mediterranean,” on National Geographic YouTube channel.

Last updated: January 29, 2025