The work of the Institute "Mediterranean Societies in Transition" (SoMuM) analyses the profound and lasting transformations of societies around the Mediterranean, from Europe to Africa.
The main objective of the Institute is to build a "Mediterranean laboratory" for the study of changing societies, open to a broad international partnership and including students from Aix-Marseille University in its work. This laboratory promotes the interface of the Humanities and Social Sciences with other disciplinary sectors, such as the Environmental, Energy or Health Sciences.
Scientific events, intended for researchers, teacher-researchers, students and open to non-academic audiences, punctuate the life of the Institute:
- Launching conference: the Institute was launched on 6 March 2020 at the Maison méditerranéenne des sciences de l'Homme, during a conference on interdisciplinarity, mutations and the Mediterranean. This meeting was an opportunity to welcome two "disciplinary border crossers", the historian François Hartog and the geohistorian Christian Grataloup.
- SoMuM annual conference: every year, at the beginning of September, the Institute goes back to school! A conference is organized at the beginning of the academic year with the active participation of doctoral and Master students from the SoMuM perimeter, as well as the Institute's scientific project leaders. These conferences are an opportunity to address a major theme by discipline.
- SoMuM events: seminars, round tables, workshops, presentation of the latest publications by the Institute's researchers, etc. In various formats, SoMuM events present the Institute's research and publications and thus provide keys to reading the evolution of our societies in a world that is connected, interdependent and open on three continents.