The CSIC’s Interdisciplinary Thematic Platforms (PTIs) are a collaborative concept that has been designed to tackle global challenges by integrating research groups from multiple disciplines, together with companies and institutions both public and private.

The MEDhis platform addresses a problem of great theoretical relevance that has significant global implications: we study the interconnections between cultural contact and social change in the medieval and early modern Mediterranean. Our focus springs from the observation that the western and the eastern Mediterranean—and in particular the Iberian Peninsula—constituted a unique space of large-scale, continuous contacts across communities, especially those defined by traditional denominational labels as ‘Christian, Muslim, and Jewish’. Instrumental in the definition of long-term trajectories, these contacts have left a mark throughout the region and up to the present day.

MEDhis is a joint endeavour among specialists in Arabic, Hebrew, Latin, Greek, and Romance languages, scholars of social history, culture, literature, religion, and the arts, with deep expertise in the study of contacts, the transmission of culture, social dynamics, and relations of power.

The principal challenge of MEDhis consists in a re-evaluation of the interrelationship between cultural contact and social change in order to understand their impact in the Mediterranean, along with their contemporary characteristics. In addition, MEDhis seeks to contribute to a critical understanding of such concepts as ‘change’ and ‘identity’. Our research thus addresses the Horizon2020 challenge of ‘Europe in a changing world – Inclusive, innovative and reflective societies’.