An Interdisciplinary Research Seminar at Palau Pedralbes Addresses Key Issues in the Mediterranean

31 March 2023 | Corporate news

More than 25 experts took part in the annual seminar of Aula Mediterrània on the 29th and 30th of March at the Palau de Pedralbes, the annual meeting of the inter-university program Aula Mediterrània, organised by the IEMed and more than a dozen university masters since 2014.

Up to 9 thematic sessions have been organised that will address issues such as the link between popular culture and political power in the Middle East, reception and trafficking of migrants in the Mediterranean, the emergence of artificial intelligence in the Mediterranean, energy policy in the region, the electoral prospects in Turkey, or the growing influence of Russia and China in the south and east of the Mediterranean, among others. The sessions were attended by more than 100 students from the 10 master’s degrees who are collaborating in the Aula Mediterrània program in the current 2022-23 edition. There was also a debate session on the Arabist tradition in the academy in Spain organised in collaboration with the Foro de Investigadores del Mundo Árabe y Musulmán (FIMAM).

Among the speakers who took part in the seminar are the expert on the links between politics in the Middle East and international feminist relations, Nicola Pratt (University of Warwick), the professor of Arab and Islamic Studies Bernabé López, Anna Herranz-Surrallés, professor of International Relations (Maastricht University), and Lara Villalón, freelance journalist in Turkey.

Check out the full program

Aula Mediterrània Awards

As part of the seminar, the 2020-21 Aula Mediterrània prizes were awarded to the best Final Master’s Dissertations in an event attended by the General Director of External Action and the European Union of the Government of Catalonia, Anna Dotor, and the head of international affairs at Barcelona City Council, Felip Roca.

The awarded students are:

First prize

“The securitarization of migration in Greece: mapping the evolution of securitizing discourses between 1991-2021”.
Christina Georgia Zacharaki (Master in International Security, IBEI)

Second prize

“Construcción de la “amenaza existencial” y securitización del programa nuclear iraní. La influencia de las élites en el discurso de seguridad israelí”
María Fernández Collado (Master’s in International Relations, Security and Development, UAB)

Third prize

“No hay ojos en el mar. El papel de las ONG en la cobertura mediática de los flujos de inmigrantes y las relaciones con los medios mainstream”.
Alessia Lai (Master’s in Contemporary Migrations, Rights and Social Cohesion, UAB-UB)