Exploring the human dimensions of Mediterranean biodiversity as strategies for coexistence and resilience
January 28–April 8, 2026
In a time of shifting shorelines, rising seas, and increasingly ruthless climate fluctuations, it is essential to co-design policies, pedagogies, and cultural practices that can sustain more-than-human futures in all their diversity, biological and beyond. Plural Seas, Porous Futures: Exploring the human dimensions of Mediterranean biodiversity as strategies for coexistence and resilience, the upcoming semester of TBA21–Academy’s online pedagogical platform OCEAN / UNI, brings together community participation, digital narratives, relational foodscapes, and strategies for rewilding the sea. In these exchanges, we will traverse the pathways between the monoliths of art, science, and conservation, guided by MEDiverSEAty fellows, scholars, artists, researchers, and community actors who are working towards porous futures for human–ocean relations.
To complement these discussions, the semester is paired with a Digital Residency and Activation series, Sound Ecologies, led by artist and researcher Robertina Šebjanič, through which participants practice listening as a relational and investigative tool. If the main sessions ask how plural values and policies shape Mediterranean biodiversity, and vice versa, this Activation series invites participants to sense and test those questions through embodied, more-than-human encounters.
Rather than sustaining technocratic constructions of marine socioecological systems, our lines of enquiry explore ways of cultivating relational approaches among the living beings that constitute biodiversity. The biological distinctiveness of the Mediterranean Sea – inseparable from its millennia of imperial expansion, maritime exchange, migration, and resource extraction – makes it an instructive case, considering the plural modes of relation and value that have shaped its seascapes. This semester sets out to experiment with tools and languages, relational approaches, critical ocean literacy, and lived coastal knowledge. By moving between conceptual frameworks and situated examples from the Mediterranean, it seeks to co-design governance, pedagogical, and cultural practices that can sustain more-than-human futures for a more just and diverse experience of marine biodiversity
MEDiverSEAty is a European Doctoral Network exploring the human dimensions of Mediterranean marine biodiversity. Responding to the gap between existing conservation frameworks and their real-world implementation, the project integrates social, cultural, and economic perspectives into biodiversity research and policy. Focusing on areas such as marine citizen science, maritime spatial planning, and marine heritage, MEDiverSEAty highlights the often-overlooked diversity of cultures, roles, and attitudes shaping human–sea relations. Bringing together partners from six Mediterranean countries, it delivers an interdisciplinary training program grounded in ocean literacy and marine biodiversity conservation.
To take part in this semester, please register via the form here.
Program
All main sessions and activations take place live online via Zoom, biweekly on Wednesdays at 6pm CET or CEST
January 28, 2026, 6pm CET
Community intro session—MEDiverSEAty. In quest of the human dimensions of Mediterranean Marine Biodiversity
February 4, 2026, 6pm CET
Session I: Creative and critical approaches to socio-ecological futures. With Ruth Brennan and Nikolas Kosmatopoulos.
February 18, 2026, 6pm CET
Session II: Empowering communities through activism, artistic practice and science for ocean protection. With Baiba Prūse and Léna Frejaville.
March 4, 2026, 6pm CET
Session III: Sensing the Sea: Digital Immersion for Ocean Literacy and Conservation Narratives. With Cyber_nymphs (Ewelyna Jarosz & Justyna Górowska) and Marco Cozza.
March 18, 2026, 6pm CET
Session IV: Relational Foodscapes by the Sea. With Michael Goodman and Yolenn Farges.
April 1, 2026, 6pm CET
Session V: Empowering Marine Biodiversity and the People around It: Shall we call it Seawilding? With Carlos Mallo Molina and Xandra van der Eijk.
April 8, 2026, 6pm CET
Epilogue: Plural seas, porous futures?
Community closing session.
Related opportunities
Activations Series
Sound Ecologies with Robertina Šebjanič: April 15–May 20, 2026
More information and application here. Deadline: February 28, 2026.
Journeys
Along with participation in the sessions, TBA21–Academy is commissioning texts to enrich the curriculum by adding other perspectives to the featured topics.
More information and application here. Deadline: February 16, 2026.
OCEAN / UNI: Spring 2026 Plural Seas, Porous Futures and the concept of the Digital Residency and Activations are developed within the broader framework of the MEDiverSEAty project and supported by Ars Biologica (Budweis 2028, Czechia).
