June 22-26, 2026
Call For Application: December 2, 2025– February 28, 2026
The Graduate Seminar is led by:
- Sabancı University
- Ca’ Foscari University of Venice
- University of Exeter
For centuries, the Mediterranean has been a crossroads where peoples, ideas, and powers encountered one another. From the Crusades to World War I, the region witnessed constant interactions through trade, diplomacy, religion, law, and cultural exchange, as well as military conflict, all of which shaped political and social life across three continents. Recent scholarship has demonstrated that these connections were not peripheral but central to the histories of Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East.
Yet Mediterranean history often remains at the margins of global and national historiographies. Global history has tended to privilege the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, while national histories have narrowly focused on the modern nation-state, isolating developments within fixed borders. This seminar challenges those boundaries and invites participants to explore how Mediterranean history, grounded in primary sources and framed through a comparative perspective, can reshape our understanding of the past and open new pathways for thinking about both global and national histories.
Faculty
Abdurrahman Atçıl, Sabancı University
Tommaso Stefini, Sabancı University
Vera Costantini, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice
Maria Fusaro, University of Exeter
Isabella Lazzarini, Turin University
Banu Turnaoğlu, Sabancı University
Topics
1. Political conceptions and practices across the Mediterranean
2. Economic conceptions and practices across the Mediterranean
3. Cultural systems and translation across the Mediterranean
4. Diplomacy and international law in the Mediterranean
Who can apply?
This Graduate Seminar is offered to Master students, PhD students, and junior researchers in History, Cultural Studies, Political Science and International Relations, and Gender Studies, Archaeology and History.
Open to candidates from all the VIU Member Institutions; applications from excellent candidates from non-member institutions will be also considered and evaluated.
Fees & grant support
Full fee waiver scholarships are available for students from VIU member institutions. In addition, grant support is available to support partially or fully the costs of international travel. Accommodation is provided free of charge.
The participation fee for students of non-member institutions is Euro 1.150 VAT included. The fee is inclusive of tuition, course materials, accommodation, lunches, social events and taxes. Students from non-member institutions are not eligible for VIU grant support. VIU Alumni are eligible for a reduced fee.
Applicants must submit the (1) application form, (2) a letter of motivation – which should include a short bio and a brief description of the candidate’s research project, (3) a curriculum vitae, and (4) a photo.
For further information please download the brochure and the program or write to: summerschools@univiu.org
