Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: Reversing the Gaze and Rethinking Euro-Mediterranean Relations
15 October 2026. From 18:30 | Conference | English | IEMedReversing the Gaze and Rethinking Euro-Mediterranean Relations
Opening Session of the Aula Mediterrània Lecture Series 2026-2027 with Michelle Pace, Senior International Research & Policy Consultant.
For decades, Euro-Mediterranean relations have been understood primarily through a European gaze: Europe as the producer of norms, the promoter of governance models and the architect of regional cooperation. Yet contemporary geopolitical transformations challenge this assumption. Shifting centres of economic and political influence, competing visions of global order, and contested understandings of legitimacy require a reconsideration of Europe’s position in the Mediterranean and beyond. Michelle Pace proposes a reversal of the gaze. Rather than asking only how Europe shapes the Mediterranean, she examines how Mediterranean and global actors interpret, contest and reshape Europe itself. From Palestine and the question of European credibility to emerging patterns of regional diplomacy, connectivity and strategic autonomy, the Mediterranean has become a space where competing political projects and visions of order are negotiated. Rethinking Euro-Mediterranean relations requires moving beyond inherited hierarchies and towards a more relational understanding of power, agency and political transformation. Reversing the gaze provides not only a way of analysing Europe’s changing global position, but also a framework for imagining more reciprocal and plural forms of Mediterranean engagement.
Michelle Pace is a Professor and Senior Research & Policy Analyst as well as a Visitor at the Department of Political Science, Lund University in Sweden (where she is also a Member of the Scientific Advisory Board at the Centre for Advanced Middle Eastern Studies). Moreover, Michelle is a Visiting Professor (non-residential) at the Middle East Studies Forum, Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship & Globalisation, Deakin University, Australia. She is also an Affiliate Member of the ESRC Centre for Society and Mental Health at King’s College London as well as Affiliate Professor, Faculty of Arts, University of Malta. Furthermore, she has been an Associate Fellow, Europe Programme at Chatham House as well as a Visiting Fellow at the Refugee Studies Centre, University of Oxford.
As an interdisciplinary scholar, her research bridges global politics, sociology and critical social theory to examine the political, economic and societal dimensions of conflict, displacement and inequality. She has led and contributed to major research projects funded by the British Academy, the ESRC, the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Carlsberg Foundation, the MENASP network, the Wellcome Trust and the European Commission, including Horizon projects. In her latest book, Un-welcome to Denmark: The Paradigm Shift and Refugee Integration (Manchester University Press, 2025), she critically assesses Denmark’s migration regime through the voices of stakeholders affected by its harshness.
This session is opening the Aula Mediterrània lecture series 2026-2027 in the framework of an inter-university programme organised by the IEMed in collaboration with several university masters. The lecture series wil be addressing until May 2027 key issues to understand the social, political, economic and cultural environment of the Euro-Mediterranean region.
Moderated by Elisabeth Johansson-Nogués, Research Professor and Jean Monnet Chair (IBEI), the session is co-organised with IBEI Master’s Degrees.
Speakers
Lorena Elvira
Secretary-General for European Union and Foreign Action Government of Catalonia
Elisabeth Johansson-Nogués
Research Professor and Jean Monnet Chair, IBEIOrganised by
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