History of the Mediterranean Studies Association: An Eyewitness Account

abstract:The formation of the Mediterranean Studies Association was the result of a chance meeting and new friendship established at an academic meeting at Notre Dame University in 1986. In the years that followed, the collaborations of Rick Clement and Benjamin Taggie led to the unanticipated establishment of the academic journal Mediterranean Studies, now in its twenty-eighth year of publication. In 1994 the Mediterranean Studies Association was formally established and in 1998 organized its first International Congress in Lisbon, Portugal. Over the next quarter century, overcoming many challenging situations and through the efforts of the original founders and including, since 2001, Louise Taggie, the organization has grown into a major organization devoted to interdisciplinary and international education and research, now with over sixteen hundred members worldwide. The MSA has also been an active participant and/or creator of such academic endeavors as the Nocciano Institute for the Arts and Culture, the University of Massachusetts Summer Sicily Program, and the Summer Program in Évora, Portugal.