Paper short abstract:

The process through which crossroads generate borders, with particular attention to attempts to control disease across the Mediterranean, will be the focus of this paper.

Paper long abstract:

Mediterranean means 'middle earth,' a sea in between lands, both connecting and separating Europe, Africa and the Arab World . For centuries, that sea has acted as a crossroads, making trade, travel and transit possible. It also made trouble possible: wars and disease in particular have regularly travelled across this middle earth, wreaking havoc with people's lives. It is no surprise that there have been attempts to control them both: with walls, with arms, with rules and laws and procedures. Attempts to protect places, to inoculate them from perceived harm, has also created some of the strongest border regimes. The process through which crossroads generate borders, with particular attention to attempts to control disease across the Mediterranean, will be the focus of this paper.