Unpacking Mixedness for an Inclusive History of the Red Sea, 1800s-2000s

Descripción del proyecto

Estudiar el papel del mestizaje en la historia del mar Rojo

El mar Rojo se ha estudiado ampliamente en los estudios sobre África y Oriente Próximo. Sin embargo, el aspecto del carácter mixto se ha pasado por alto en gran medida. Del mismo modo, los estudios críticos sobre el mestizaje aún no han explorado el tema del mestizaje en el mar Rojo. Dicha laguna en la investigación subraya la necesidad de un examen exhaustivo del modo en que los individuos de herencia mixta han influido en la historia del mar Rojo. El equipo del proyecto REDMIX, financiado por el Consejo Europeo de Investigación, se centra en el período comprendido entre los años 1800 y 2000. Su objetivo es crear un archivo digital sobre el mestizaje en el mar Rojo mediante un método a largo plazo, interdisciplinario y ascendente que priorice las perspectivas de personas de ascendencia mestiza y reconozca su papel fundamental en la historia de la región.

Objetivo

The debate on mixed-race people is gaining momentum, and the Red Sea – located at the crossroads of Africa and the Middle East, of the Mediterranean Sea and the Indian Ocean – stands as a privileged venue to investigate mixedness. Focusing on a timeframe (1800s-2000s) marked by increasing mobilities and mixed-race unions and offspring (e.g. Afro-Arabs, Afro-Asians, Euro-Africans), REDMIX investigates the roots and routes of mixed-race people and groups through a bottom-up, long-term, and interdisciplinary perspective, to create a digital archive about mixedness in the Red Sea.
African and Middle Eastern Studies have examined the Red Sea, its mobilities, and its entanglements, but mixedness has remained marginal in their thematic and methodological debate. Critical Mixed Race Studies has explored mixedness as a broad concept referring to individuals of mixed descent, yet without ever digging into case studies from the Red Sea. Thus, an extensive analysis of when, how, and why mixed-race people and groups have negotiated their position at political and social turning points in the history of the Red Sea is still lacking. REDMIX aims to fill this methodological and knowledge gap by overcoming the partitioned approach to the Red Sea and promoting a perspective centred on mixed-race people. The project intertwines African, Middle Eastern, and (Critical) Mixed Race Studies; brings together a rich corpus of archival and oral sources scattered across Europe, Africa, and the Middle East; resorts to the digital humanities; and contributes to the conceptual framework of mixedness by applying global microhistory and comparatively investigating different case studies through synchronic and diachronic analyses. As the first comparative investigation into the history of mixedness in the Red Sea, REDMIX will take an active part in the mission of writing a more inclusive history of the area, one that firmly establishes the centrality of mixed-race people.