Recensioni di progetti di digital history: un database cooperativo

Our Shared Past in the Mediterranean. A World History Curriculum Project for Educators.

A team of distinguished Mediterranean historians come together for a world-history approach to the ever-changing Mediterranean region. The aim is to transcend national and local points of view to obtain a global vision of this part of the world – from a social, cultural, economic, political and of course historical point of view.  

Project director is Dr. Peter Mandaville, who is currently Professor of International Affairs in the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University. From 2015-2016 he served as Senior Adviser in the Secretary of State’s Office of Religion & Global Affairs at the U.S. Department of State where he led that office’s work on ISIS and sectarian conflict in the Middle East. (information from https://globalaffairs.gmu.edu/people/pmandavi). The project involves mostly professors from George Mason University  but – quite rightly, given its aims - also historians from Morocco, Turkey, the Middle East, and other US universities, whose work is specifically concerned with the geographical history of the Mediterranean area.

 The website is made up of a number of introductory sections (Home, About, Introductory Essay) which set out the aims and contents of the project as well as those involved and the details of organisations that support it, namely the British Council and The Social Science Research Council (SSRC).  

The core project is then divided into six modules, each examining a specific time in the history of the Mediterranean, starting with “the dawn of civilization” (as defined by the authors), through the various empires which over the centuries have fought for and in the region, the Middle Ages, the industrial age, up to contemporary history. Each Module then examines a number of topics, ranging from population patterns, to trade, to spiritual life. Using the World History For Us All online curriculum, it builds these topics and linked lessons into a table using WHFUA headers, listed below:

• WHFUA Key Theme 1: Patterns of Population 
• WHFUA Key Theme 2: Economic Networks and Exchange
  
• WHFUA Key Theme 3: Uses and Abuses of Power
  
• WHFUA Key Theme 4: Haves and Have-Nots
  
• WHFUA Key Theme 5: Expressing Identity
  
• WHFUA Key Theme 6: Science, Technology, and the Environment
  
• WHFUA Key Theme 7: Spiritual Life and Moral Codes
  

The site then has a Bibliography section which lists all sources – over 70 texts both by the project’s collaborators and external experts in the field.

The site is divided in limited in number and clearly named sections that allow for simple navigation and it offers a very rational structuring  of the information provided, which makes for ease of consultation.  The modules, as stated above, are clearly organised in a table of contents that permits the user to see at a glance topics and themes. 

However, on the day of reviewing, the site was presenting some problems: when trying to click on each Module’s summary, I was redirected to an error page with the following message from the developers: “Omeka has encountered an error. To learn how to see more detailed information about this error, see the Omeka Codex page on retrieving error messages”. Unfortunately this problem persisted over the days and didn’t allow for consultation of these specific pages.

The site also features a search function where site users can search contents by key words. However, there is no FAQ section.

The starting point for this project is a belief of the common heritage of the peoples and nations of the Mediterranean, and a desire to move away from the purely European viewpoint which has characterised so much of the historical discourse over the decades (and perhaps centuries)towards a global history approach that includes others - from Africa to the Middle East. The strapline to the project is important: it talks about a “project for educators” – so this is aimed at those who tutor in History and related subjects.

The website is clearly structured and navigation is simple and clear. The intent of the approach is laudable and the use of WHFUA structures and headers allows for a vast number of different and heterogeneous themes to appear organised and rational to the user. This structure also allows to easily and clearly identify topics of interests at a glance and minimises time-wasting, in my view.

The Bibliography section is particularly rich and can provide a really precious resource for those interested in this area of world history. I would have perhaps added hyperlinks to make this section even more immediately useful.  

However parts of the site don’t work and this is a minus point for the validity of the project. One wonders if the website is regularly updated or whether the project has simply concluded and is therefore, like all resources, destined to become obsolete with progress made in historical studies.