The morning of the last day of our summer school was devoted to Giovanna Di Matteo's seminar about the intersection of memory, volunteering, migration and tourism on Lampedusa and Lesvos. Focusing on this topic by a geographical point of view, Di Matteo discussed how memory spaces are created and co-created through practices, lived experience and the engagement of a collectivity. We need to recognize the dynamicity of these spaces, which can be imbued with different meanings, being open to remembering and forgetting: sites and monuments can be reinterpreted; memorials can be controversial when publicly challenged and contested, thus calling into question the authority of the memorial as appropriate or not. Another central aspect to consider when looking at the nexus between memory and heritage is the fact that tourism is a fundamental part of the emerging regimes of memory. Indeed, tourism plays a fundamental role into the process of creating, preserving and modifying memory and heritage sites.
After this interesting lecture, the PhD studentes enrolled in the summer school had the chance to present and discuss they own ongoing researches that they are currently carrying on. This was another important moment of our summer programme, an useful space for sharing and reflecting about the way young researchers could include in their fields an analysis of the combined impact of migration and tourism.
During the afternoon, all the participants (lecturers and students) had free time to joing the celebrations for Our Lady of Porto Salvo, the patroness of Lampedusa, celebrated every year on September 22nd.
This local feast, that has a strong spiritual meaning as well as a clear socio-political dimension, gave us the opportunity to look at the transformations that have reconfigured the popolar devotion to Our Lady of Porto Salvo over time as a prism through which to analyse the tensions between local dynamics and global forces that affect the island. The visit that Pope Francis paid to Lampedusa in July 2013 contributed significantly to the construction and global dissemination of the discourse about the hospitable, supportive and charitable spirit of the island.
The exhortation to make Lampedusa a “safe port” for migrants represented the first step in defining the “Gospel of Welcome” that has characterised Bergoglio’s pontificate and was symbolically expressed through a specific prayer to Our Lady of Porto Salvo: "Mary, Mother of God and our Mother, Protector of migrants and itinerant people, you offer maternal assistance to the men, women and children forced to flee their lands in search of a future and hope". Just as the Shrine of Cala Madonna has always offered protection and refuge, in Pope Francis' message the whole of Lampedusa must become a "sanctuary", a place of peace, justice, welcome and charity towards displaced people.