History shows that Mediterranean cities have been based on significant mixing of populations since very ancient times. So that the Mediterranean has become a kind of universal model in terms of cosmopolitanism. My conference will focus on the evolution of plural identities in cities in the south and the north between the colonial period and decolonization. The first part will address the colonial period and more generally the XIXth century which caused a significant mixing of ambiguous forms, between racism and tolerance. Whether under colonial systems of different natures (between France, the United Kingdom, and even Italy and Spain) or under Ottoman rule, most cities are marked by forms of cultural and religious diversity. The flows between the North and the South are then very important (installation of Europeans in the Maghreb for example). In a second part it will be a question of reflecting the shock of decolonizations which provoke new forms of mixing. The flows between the South and the North are accelerating (labour migration particularly). Finally, in a third part, it will be a question of the place of memory and of the heritage of cosmopolitanism for the governance of these last years or decades by showing how, on the basis of examples, the cities stage or not this dimension in policies public, communication campaigns or through the media, works and cultural productions.

Yvan Gastaut is involved in the Jean Monnet Network as representative of the URMIS, France. Lecturer in History, University of Côte d’Azur, Nice. He works in the laboratory URMIS, The Migrations and Society Research Unit, based in Nice and also in Paris VII. He is a member of the National Museum of History of Immigration in Paris Advisory Committee and also fellow in the French Institute of Migration Convergences, Paris. His main line of research is the issue of migration in the Mediterranean area between the 19th and the 21st century. In particular, Yvan Gastaut is interested in questions of representation imaginaries, sport, identity, stereotypes that flow between the two Mediterranean shores, racism vs antiracism, public opinion and memory conflicts. He was the director of a program of de Agence Nationale de la Recherche in France "Ecrans et Inégalité" (ECRIN 2013-17) about the image of "Arabic" people in TV, cinema and internet (1962-2001). He is teaching a Master in Migration in Nice and CIFE formation (Nice-Tunis-Istanbul) as well as Master in Migration (ORMES) in Agadir University.

Co-organized with: