The Mediterranean Childhoods Network is a transnational, interdisciplinary community based at the Mediterranean Institute, University of Malta. It brings together scholars, practitioners, writers, artists and activists committed to rethinking childhood from, within and across the Mediterranean.
The Network understands the Mediterranean not simply as a geographical region, but as a historically layered, politically charged and culturally interconnected space in which childhood is shaped by movement, memory, care, conflict and creativity.
At a time when children’s lives across the Mediterranean are profoundly affected by migration, border politics, environmental crises, economic inequality and cultural transformation, the Network advances the conviction that childhood must be treated as a central analytical, ethical and political concern.
Mediterranean childhoods are not marginal to the study of the region. They are formative sites in which questions of belonging, rights, inheritance, identity and the future are negotiated.
The Network seeks to cultivate an intellectual commons that examines how childhoods are lived, represented, imagined and contested across the Mediterranean.
Its work attends to literature, storytelling, education and cultural production while remaining grounded in children’s lived experiences and material conditions. Children are recognised not only as subjects of care and protection, but also as active citizens, meaning-makers, cultural participants and political actors situated within families, communities and histories that cross land and sea.
The Network is committed to knowledge-making as a collective practice sustained through trust, reciprocity and long-term conversation across languages, disciplines and geopolitical divides. Particular attention is given to equitable participation and to supporting scholars and practitioners working in under-resourced and precarious contexts.
The Mediterranean Childhoods Network seeks to:
Through sustained collaboration, the Network aims to create grounded yet visionary work that affirms the significance of children’s voices, stories and lives in shaping more joyful and equitable futures for the Mediterranean and beyond.
Dr Giuliana Fenech — Mediterranean Institute, University of Malta, Malta
Prof. Norbert Bugeja — Mediterranean Institute, University of Malta, Malta
Prof. Marisa Kërbizi — Department of Literature, Faculty of Education, Aleksandër Moisiu University of Durrës, Albania
Prof. Nenad Veličković — Department of Literatures of the Peoples of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Prof. Ivana Odža — Department of Teacher Education, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Split, Croatia
Prof. Petros Panaou — Department of Language and Literacy Education, Mary Frances Early College of Education, University of Georgia, United States/Cyprus
Prof. Yasmine Motawy — Department of Rhetoric and Composition, The American University in Cairo, Egypt
Prof. Virginie Douglas — Université Le Havre Normandie and the ERIAC Research Centre, Université de Rouen Normandie, France
Dr Vassiliki Vassiloudi — Department of Primary Education, School of Education, University of Crete, Greece
Dr Maria Lucenti — Department of Education Sciences, University of Genoa, Italy
Prof. Marnie Campagnaro — Department of Philosophy, Sociology, Education and Applied Psychology, University of Padua, Italy
Dr Susanne Abou Ghaida — Institute of Research and Study on the Arab and Islamic Worlds, Aix-Marseille University, France/Lebanon
Dr Svetlana Kalezić-Radonjić — Faculty of Philology, University of Montenegro, Montenegro
Prof. Ahmad Qabaha — Department of English Language and Literature, Faculty of Humanities, An-Najah National University, Palestine
Prof. Lucía-Pilar Cancelas-Ouviña — Department of Didactics of Language and Literature, Faculty of Education Sciences, University of Cádiz, Spain
Prof. Milena Mileva Blažić — Faculty of Education, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
Prof. Lobna Ben Salem — Faculty of Letters, Arts and Humanities, University of Manouba, Tunisia
Dr Alperen Avci — Child Development Programme, Department of Child Care and Youth Services, Muş Alparslan University, Turkey
Dr Seran Demiral — Institute of Sociology, Faculty of Arts and Humanities, University of Porto, Portugal/Turkey
Dr Duygu Yalman Polatlar — Preschool Education Programme, Department of Primary Education, Faculty of Education, Fatih Sultan Mehmet Vakıf University, Turkey