MACS Proseminar: Elizabeth S. Greene
When and Where
Speakers
Description
Mediterranean Archaeology Collaborative Specialization (MACS) Program presents…
Prof. Elizabeth S. Greene
Department of Classics, Brock University
"Ephemeral Heritage: Boats, Migration, and the Central Mediterranean Passage"
Thursday, November 12, 2020
4 pm
Online via Zoom
This is a free seminar but registration is required. Register here.
The central Mediterranean today marks one of the most active and dangerous routes for sea crossings to Europe, due in no small part to border regimes designed to prevent the mobilities that have defined these waters from earliest antiquity. This talk considers initial results of a project to document and valorize the material culture of vessels used to carry forced and undocumented migrants to southeast Sicily. The former fishing craft reveal structural and spatial adaptations to facilitate a different traffic, reflected in items left behind when the boats were intercepted. Archaeology helps embed these journeys within longer-term connections and situate them alongside more traditional notions of heritage. In a region that celebrates its deep connections to the sea, care for the materiality of these mobilities foregrounds human experiences, while serving goals of advocacy, empowerment, and social justice amid global change.