Latin Rhodes and European Malta: Two Fortress-Islands at the Borders of the Western World

In this research project I will argue that in present times, as in the medieval period, imaginary but also real fortresses were and are created to defend the European territory and the “Western identity” from an alleged “infidel” threat.
Key issues will be: the clash/encounter between social/religious/ethnic groups in transcultural societies, the emergence of diasporic identities and legal pluralism and yesterday’s and today’s perception of an alleged Islamic menace and its consequences. Interesting analogies and differences emerge by the study, on the one hand, of crusades and medieval diplomatic and unofficial relations between Christians and “infidels”, and, on the other hand, contemporary preventive wars and restrictive migration policies, also under the light of the impact of recent North African revolutions.
An anthropological and legal analysis will be coupled with an historical one. Therefore, two case studies will be compared and contrasted: medieval Latin Rhodes (focusing on Hospitallers’ construction of Bodrum castle and indulgence selling policies at the beginning of the 15th c.) and contemporary Malta (as part of the European Union since 2004, focusing on the impact of the “Arab spring” on migration policies). Both Rhodes and Malta, in two different historical periods, had and have been (and certainly have been imagined as) strategic Mediterranean frontiers of the Latin Christian or now European/Western-Christian world. The study of these two specific cases shall provide insights for a better comprehension of how the imagery of the “fortress” works in order to create a “protected unity” against a “fragmented reality”. Extreme security measures are enacted instead of formulating more human and pragmatic common policies.

Blog: http://transculturality.tumblr.com
Photography website: www.flickr.com/30121
 

Personal Details

Teresa Sartore Senigaglia
 

Currently detached to GERME at the ULB (Université libre de Bruxelles)

http://germe.ulb.ac.be/users/34/18/teresa-sartore-googlemail-com.html

CV

• Since 04/2009
  Research Associate, University of Heidelberg, Germany
   
• 09/2007 - 09/2008
  Master of Arts in Migration and Diaspora Studies, SOAS – School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, UK
   
• 03/2008 - 07/2008
  Public Relations and Marketing officer (volunteer), Refugee Council, London, UK
   
• 09/2006- 08/2007
  Event Organiser, Light-Box s.n.l., Communication and Event Agency, Venice, Italy
   
• 04/2006 - 08/2006
  Intern for the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Italian Cultural Institute, Italian Embassy, Rabat, Morocco
   
• 01/2006 – 04/2006
  Event organiser and teacher, Italian Cultural Centre, Yaoundé, Cameroon
   
• 09/2000 – 09/2005
  Laurea in Scienze e Tecniche dell’Interculturalità (Intercultural Studies), Università degli Studi di Trieste, Italy
   
• 08/2005
  European Summer School “European Union Law and Policy on Immigration and Asylum”, Academic Network for Legal Studies on Immigration and Asylum in Europe, ULB - Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium
   
• 09/2003 – 07/2004
  Exchange student at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain
  
   

Research and Photography

 
Personal projects:
 

- “Behind the Wall” photo exhibition, Heidelberg 2010 http://behindwalls.tumblr.com/

- “Transculturality” blog, www.transculturality.tumblr.com since 2009

- “Frammenti di ordinaria africanità” exhibition: a glimpse of African world through a photographic eye, Rabat (Morocco) 2006, www.photosai.com/sartore

- “ Frammenti di ordinaria africanità” blog, www.frammenti06.blogspot.com, 2006
 

On commission:
 

“My Local Guide Venice”, Light Box editions, 2008, Venice, Italy, http://www.light-box.it/links.php