The Fall 2025 Mediterranean Seminar Workshop
Thursday and Friday, 11 and 12 September
The American College of the Mediterranean - Aix-en-Provence
“The Mediterranean: The Land of the Vine and…”
Fernand Braudel famously characterized the Mediterranean as a landscape of the vine and olive. The earliest established origin of wine (as well as beer and distilling) was in the Mediterranean region. More than merely a foodstuff or intoxicant, wine became a crucial element in social, medicinal, cultural and religious practices around the region, and consequently grape production become a pillar of local economies and of regional and transregional trade. It was produced since the pre-historical era and disseminated by the Phoenicians, wine became emblematic of Mediterranean culture in Antiquity and constitutes a key commercial sector today. Distilled grape pomace flavored with anise (anís, pastis, sambuca, ouzo, raki, arak) is also consumed around the region, alongside fermented distillates of fig, palm and dates. Hashish and other narcotics were consumed through much of the region. Nevertheless, intoxication was regarded with ambivalence – both as a medium of euphoria and transcendence and indiscretion and a threat to the rational and moral order. For Christians and Jews wine came to be an essential element of observance. For Muslims grape wine was generally considered forbidden; nevertheless grapes and wine continued to be produced by minority communities, and consumed widely (and often openly) by Muslims. The Islamic wine party became a secular ritual, while genres of secular and religious poetry across the Abrahamic faiths celebrated wine and intoxication.
Program & Papers
All papers [click on the title to download] are copyright the author and are not to be copied, distributed or cited without express written permission by same.
Click on the participant name to see their bio.
Workshop presenters will begin with a brief (10 mins max) contextualization/defense of their essay, followed by the respondent’s comments (5-8 mins), and an optional response by the author (5 mins max), before the floor opens for a moderated discussion.
Round-table presenters will be kept to a strict limit of 3 minutes, during which time they can summarize or elaborate on their position paper, address related themes, or engage with the other papers. Following these presentations the floor will open for a moderated discussion.
Thursday 11 September 2025
Location: Main Hall, CEF, 2bis rue du Bon Pasteur, Aix-en-Provence
• a 20-minute walk from workshop accommodation
9:30—10:00 Coffee and Registration
10:00—10:20 Opening Remarks
• Carl Jubran (President, Institute for American Universities College)
• Brian A. Catlos (Religious Studies: University of Colorado Boulder)
• Nina Zhiri (Literature: UC San Diego)
10:20–11:30 Workshop Paper #1
“Moral Landscapes of the Vine: From Mediterranean Traditions to the Global Afterlives of Terroir” [abstract]
• Kolleen Guy (Arts and Humanities: Duke Kunshan University)
Moderator: Brian A. Catlos (Religious Studies: CU Boulder)
Respondent: Anthony Triolo (The American College of the Mediterranean)
11:30–11:45 Introductions
11:45–1:15 Lunch (for speakers and registered participants)
1:15–2:25 Workshop Paper #2
““Pleasure-Giving Poisons”: Defining Opium Addiction and its Treatment from the Ottoman Empire to the Turkish Republic” [abstract]
• Daniel-Joseph MacArthur-Seal (Global History and Governance: Scuola Superiore Meridionale)
Moderator: Brian A. Catlos (Religious Studies: CU Boulder)
Respondent: Nina Zhiri (Literature: UC San Diego)
2:25-2:40 Coffee Break
2:40–3:50 Workshop Paper #3
”The Making of Enotria Tellus: Society and Politics in the Development of Italian Wine Tradition, 1860–1931” [abstract]
• Michele Monserrati (German and Italian: Smith College)
Moderator: Anthony Triolo (The American College of the Mediterranean)
Respondent: William Granara (Middle Eastern Studies: Harvard University)
3:50–4:10 Coffee Break
4:10–5:30 Keynote Presentation:
”Vine and Zeitgeist. What killed the wine culture of the Eastern Mediterranean” [abstract]
• Paulina Lewicka (Arabic and Islamic Studies at the Faculty of Oriental Studies: University of Warsaw)
Moderator: Brian A. Catlos (Religious Studies: CU Boulder)
7:30–9:30 Dinner (see below) for workshop presenters, moderators, and round-table presenters
9:30—11:30 Post-workshop meeting (see below)
Friday 12 September 2025
Location: Main Hall, CEF, 2bis rue du Bon Pasteur, Aix-en-Provence
9:30–10:00 Coffee and Registration
10:00–11:15 Round Table 1
Production and Distribution: How did techniques of wine production develop and disseminate across the Mediterranean world? How did production, dissemination and consumption of wine and intoxicants shape Mediterranean economies and how did this intersect with specific communities and constituencies?
Moderator: Brian A. Catlos (Religious Studies: CU Boulder)
• Özge Bozkurtoǧlu (Orient & Méditerranée: Université Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne) “No Barrels, No Wine: The Circulation of Wine in the Medieval Mediterranean” [abstract]
• Andrew McNey (Late Antique and Byzantine Studies: University of Oxford) ““You will weep at the wind stripping the vines naked”: How a globalised wine economy shaped human relations with the environment in the desert” [abstract]
• Ana Struillou (Institute of Historical Research) “An Intoxicant Economy: Wine, Tobacco, and Captivity in the Early Modern Western Mediterranean” [abstract]
• Josep Suñé (Instituto de Historia: CSIC) “The vine and its derivatives in Andalusi agricultural production” [abstract]
• Nicola Carotenuto (History: University of Oxford) “Mediterranean wine in the fourteenth century “[abstract]
11:15—11:30 Break
11:30–12:45 Round Table 2
Consumption and Culture: What role did wine and intoxicants have in social and cultural practices, and secular and religious rituals? What were the various manifestations of Mediterranean wine culture and how did these various over time, place and across ethno-religious communities? How was wine and intoxication viewed and depicted in art and across the various genres of literature (including fiction and non-fiction, prose, poetry, and scientific, moral or religious texts)?
Moderator: Nina Zhiri (Literature: UC San Diego)
• John Dagenais (Spanish & Portuguese: University of California Los Angeles) “Why the French Get So Drunk on Spanish Wine and Other Fun Facts of International Wine-Tippling According to Friar Francesc Eiximenis (14th C)” [abstract]
• Edward (Ted) Holt (History: Grambling State University) “Images of Wine in the Cantigas de Santa Maria” [abstract]
• Andrew Devereux (History: University of California San Diego) “Mediterraneans in Miniature” [abstract]
• Matthew Lynch (History, Philosophy, and Religion: Oregon State University) “‘Let the Mosque Be for You, and the Tavern for Me’: The Fluid Functions of Drunken Sufi Discourse” [abstract]
• Mariana Bodnaruk (History: University of Warsaw) “Vines of Transition: Vintage Imagery and Visual Rhetoric in Late Antique Art in the Mediterranean and Beyond” [abstract]
• Nicholas Pacetti (History: University of California San Diego) "Cultivating Empire: Viticulture as a Tool of Latinisation in Norman Sicily" [abstract]
12:45–2:15 Lunch (for speakers and registered participants)
2:15—2:45 Minibus to ACM Vinyards
3:00—3:45 Visit and tour of ACM Vinyards
Program of Global Wine Studies
• Anthony Triolo The American College of the Mediterranean)
3:45—5:00 Keynote Presentation:
”EtOH: Is Ethanol the Essence of Wine?” [abstract]
• Anthony Triolo (The American College of the Mediterranean)
Moderator: William Granara (Middle Eastern Studies: Harvard University)
5:00—5:15 Concluding Remarks
• Brian A. Catlos (Religious Studies: University of Colorado Boulder)
• Nina Zhiri (Literature: UC San Diego)
5:15—6:00 Wine tasting
• Anthony Triolo (The American College of the Mediterranean)
6:00—6:30 Minibus to Aix
7:30—9:30 Dinner (see below) for workshop presenters, moderators, and round-table presenters
9:30—11:30 Post-workshop meeting (see below)
Participants
• Emmanuel Botte (Centre Camille Jullian, CNRS - Aix Marseille Université)
• Gary Fields (Communication, University of California San Diego)
• Brian Sandberg (Northern Illinois University)
Practica
Arrival:
From the TGV (high-speed train) station • 20-minute taxi • 45-minute bus (every 15 mins) €4
From the local train station • 5-minute walk
From Marseille airport • 30-minute drive • 55 to 75 minutes by pubic transport (every 15 mins) €10
Taxi - Cezanne VTC Transport (English speaking) https://cezannevtcaixenprovence.fr/ • tel: + 33 649 848 324
Detailed instructions here.
Accommodation:
The Originals • 1 ave Robert Schuman 13090 Aix-en-Provence • https://urls.fr/I6TAhc Phone: + 33 442 635 024
Wifi:
You will recieve an individual password at front desk
Lunches:
Lunches are provided free to participants.
Dinners:
• Thursday: for speakers, presenting participants and respondents Brasserie de l’Archevêché Place des Martyrs de la Resistance https://archeveche-aix.fr/
• Friday: for speakers, presenting participants and respondents Restaurant La Girafe 6 rue de la Verriere • https://www.girafe-aix.fr/en/
Post-workshop meetings:
Hôtel Aquabella & Spa 2 Rue des Étuves, 13100 Aix-en-Provence, France
• Participants & attendees welcome.
Local contacts
Liaison: Charles Deleon-Franzen • charles.deleon-franzen@iau.edu • +33652054845
Administration: Margaux Hofstedt • margaux.hofstedt@iau.edu • + 33 687 687 018
Sponsors, Organization & Support:
This workshop is organized by Brian A. Catlos (University of Colorado Boulder), William Granara (Harvard University), Sharon Kinoshita (University of California Santa Cruz) and Anthony Triolo (ACM). It is sponsored by The American College of the Mediterranean, together with the Mediterranean Seminar and the CU Mediterranean Studies Group.