The Mediterranean is currently immersed in a particularly turbulent reality, marked by the persistence and spread of conflicts, the reconfiguration of geopolitical balances, the toughening of border and migration policies, internal social and political tensions, and the growing impact of the climate and environmental crisis. These complexities are compounded by profound transformations in relations between Europe, North Africa and the Middle East, as well as new forms of cooperation, externalisation, securitisation and struggles for power. Analysing this reality requires moving beyond fragmented approaches and relating processes that are often studied separately. In this context, it is particularly important to bring specialised and rigorous knowledge closer to the wider public and to create spaces for debate and exchange around the main challenges of the present.

The Aula Mediterrània Lecture Series of 2026-2027 proposes to address some of these processes from a plural academic perspective, combining an analysis of contemporary dynamics with the historical perspective necessary to understand their origins and continuities. Borders whether territorial, political, social or symbolic, are one of the guiding threads of a programme that examines mobilities and migrations, forms of regional governance and cooperation, conflicts and memories, geopolitical transformations, climate change and its impacts, as well as cultural and social expressions of resistance and resilience.

The lectures thus start from concrete issues to explore the multiple ways in which Mediterranean relations are shaped and transformed: from environmental migrations and the climate crisis to the memory of the Nakba and the situation in Gaza; from relations between Europe and the Islamic world to current policies of cooperation and externalisation; and from urban and protest spaces to literary and cultural creation as forms of resistance. Taken together, they offer different approaches to understanding a Mediterranean shaped by tensions and inequalities, but also by connections, mobilities and processes of transformation.

The interuniversity programme Aula Mediterrània, which this year celebrates its 13th edition, is an initiative led by the European Institute of the Mediterranean (IEMed), in collaboration with eight Catalan universities. After more than a decade of continuous activity, it has established itself as a leading forum for the study of the Mediterranean and for the circulation of knowledge between the two shores, with the participation of professors and researchers from European and Mediterranean universities.

This year’s edition offers a total of 26 lectures, organised within the framework of the participating master’s programmes and universities, which define the thematic agenda and select the invited speakers. Throughout the academic year, academics and specialists will address the region’s main challenges from four main axes:

• Migrations and Mobilities. Border governance, migration policies, irregularised routes and mobilities, the role of cities, integration processes, and the challenges to social cohesion.
• International Relations and Geopolitics. Relations between Europe and the Mediterranean countries, conflicts and transformations in the Middle East, the role of the Gulf monarchies, regional cooperation, and energy policies.
• History, Societies and Culture. Historical relations between the societies of the northern and southern Mediterranean, forms of contact and conflict, the construction of memories and identities, spaces of protest and cultural creation as a form of resistance and resilience.
• Environment and Sustainability. The effects of climate change, environmental transformations in the Mediterranean, the protection of ecosystems, and the challenges associated with sustainability, including their social and political repercussions.

As part of its international dimension, Aula Mediterrània maintains an exchange of speakers with Aula Árabe Universitaria at Casa Árabe, which we have expanded through collaboration with Casa Mediterráneo, thereby strengthening connections between different academic spaces devoted to the study of the Mediterranean and the Arab world. As in the 2025-2026 edition, undergraduate students from the Faculty of Geography and History at the University of Barcelona will also be able to obtain academic credit recognition for their participation in the lecture series.

Aula Mediterrània awards

Additionally, the programme organises the Aula Mediterrània awards for the best Final Master’s Thesis (call to be announced)

LECTURES

Thursday, 15th October – Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: Reversing the Gaze and Rethinking Euro-Mediterranean Relations

Monday, 19th October – Archipelagos of the Greek Diaspora in the Modern Mediterranean (17th–18th Centuries)

Monday, 26th October – From Cooperation as Aspiration to Externalisation as Reality: The Securitisation of Euro-Mediterranean Migration Governance

Monday, 2nd November – Conference title to be announced soon

Thursday, 5th November – Regeneration of Social Housing Neighbourhoods in the Euro-Mediterranean Region

Thursday, 12th November – Societies in Contact between Europe and Islam (16th–17th Centuries)

Wednesday, 18th November – Literary Creation as a Vector of Resilience in the Face of Genocide

Thursday, 26th November – Spaces for Social Interaction and Protest in the Islamic World: From the Middle Ages to the Present Day

Thursday, 3rd December – Migration Prohibitionism and Irregularised Routes in the Mediterranean: Internal and External Borders of the EU

Thursday, 10th December – Crossed Diplomacies: Christian and Muslim Agents in the Struggle for Hegemony in the Mediterranean (17th Century)

Wednesday, 13th January – Conference title to be announced soon

Thursday, 21st January – Transitional Justice in the MENA Region: Regional Dynamics and Mediterranean Connections

Thursday, 28th January – A Sea of Externalisation(s). Comparing Long-Term Trends Along Bilateral Migration Corridors: Italy-Albania and Italy-Tunisia (1990–2027)

Thursday, 4th February – The Geopolitical Role of the Gulf Monarchies in the Context of the Regional War in the Middle East

Thursday, 11th February – The Barcelona Convention and Its Legal Framework for Coastal Zone Management (ICZM Protocol)

Thursday, 18th February – Reflections on Measuring the Integration of Migrants: From the Experience in the Basque Country to the Experience in the Mediterranean

Tuesday, 23rd February – State and Capital at the Origins of Oil Imperialism in the Middle East

Tuesday, 9th March – Climate Change in the Mediterranean: Transport, Emissions and Acidification

Thursday, 1st April – Rethinking the Balance of Power in the Middle East

Thursday, 8th April – Fragmented Wholeness and the Ongoing Genocide in Gaza

Wednesday, 14th April – The Palestine Nakba: Decolonising History, Narrating the Subaltern, Reclaiming Memory

Monday, 19th April – Cities on the Frontline: Immigration and Political Polarisation

Thursday, 22nd April – Environmental Migration in North Africa and Beyond: Between Resilience, Urgency, Vulnerability and Legal Voids

Thursday, 29th April – Border Struggles between Africa and Europe: Forms of Solidarity and Resistance

Thursday, 6th May – The Enduring Coloniality of Ecological Modernization: Wind Energy Development in Western Sahara

Thursday, 13th May – Conference title to be announced soon

Venue: IEMed, C/ Girona, 20 – 08010 Barcelona (with exceptions)

DIPLOMA OF ATTENDANCE

People who have attended 40% of the sessions (10 sessions) in person may request a diploma of attendance awarded by the IEMed, issued jointly with the master’s programmes participating in the lecture series. In case you want to apply for the diploma, please complete the form on the following link : Aula Mediterrània 2026-2027

This year the twinning with Casa Árabe’s Aula Árabe Universitaria programme, which began six years ago, is maintained. This is reflected in: 1) the exchange of speakers between both programmes in Madrid and Barcelona, when agendas allow it; (2) the organisation of joint seminars; and 3) the recognition of the respective lectures in terms of certification, thanks to the possibility of connecting live to them online. In other words, if Aula Árabe Universitaria students connect online to an Aula Mediterrània lecture, that attendance will be recognised in order to acquire the Aula Árabe Universitaria certificate (up to a maximum of 2 lectures). In the same way, Aula Mediterrània students who connect online to one of the Aula Árabe Universitaria lectures will have their attendance recognised by the Aula Mediterrània certificate (also a maximum of 2 lectures).

DIPLOMA OF ATTENDANCE AT THE MIGRATION MODULE: People who have attended in person (with the exception of the sessions of Wednsday 13 January and Monday 19 April 2027) the 8 sessions organised by: Master’s Degree in Governance – Migration Studies Track, GRITIM-UPF; Master’s Degree in Urban Anthropology, Migrations and Social Intervention, URV; Universitat de Girona, and Master’s Degree in Contemporary Migrations, Rights and Social Cohesion, UAB/UB.

Undergraduate students from the Department of History and Geography of the UB who have chosen the Aula Mediterrània Lecture Series as an activity for the recognition of elective credits must attend 70% of the sessions in person.

MASTERS PARTICIPATING IN THE PROGRAMME

Master’s Degree in Contemporary Migrations, Rights and Social Cohesion, UAB/UB; IBEI Master’s Degrees; Master’s Degree in History and Identities in the Western Mediterranean, 15th-19th Centuries, UB/UA/UV/Universitat Jaume I; Master’s Degree in Diplomacy and International Organisations, CEI/UB; Master’s Degree in Lifelong Learning in Sustainability. Environment, Society, and Economy CEI/UB; CEU Universitat Abat Oliba; Master’s Degree in International Relations, Security and Development, UAB; Master’s Degree in International Journalism, Blanquerna-URL; Master’s Degree in Advanced Studies in International Affairs, Blanquerna-URL; Master’s Degree in Construction and Representation of Cultural Identities, UB; Master’s Degree in World History, UPF; Master’s Degree in Governance – Migration Studies Track, GRITIM-UPF; Master’s Degree in Urban Anthropology, Migrations and Social Intervention, URV; Universitat de Girona; Master’s Degree in Advanced Studies in Architecture, ETSAB-UPC; Master’s Degree in Internationalisation: Economic, Business and Legal-Political Aspects, UB; Master’s Degree in Contemporary History and Today’s World, UB.