Critical Ecologies Lab in the Mediterranean East (CELME)

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Critical Ecologies Lab in the Mediterranean East (CELME)
Description

The Critical Ecologies Lab in the Mediterranean East (CELME) is an experimental, collaborative, interdisciplinary research and education lab at the intersection of ecologies, social sciences, activism, and the humanities. CELME brings together researchers, scholars, artists, activists, and communities to explore, document, and address the multifaceted challenges facing the Mediterranean East, including global warming and ecological degradation, social and economic inequalities, indigenous dispossession, and colonial eco/genocide. CELME supports socially impactful research and experiments with multiple ways of learning, knowing, experiencing, and advancing robust communities within just, healthy, and liberated ecologies. CELME contributes to scientific and social debates about the formation and future of the Mediterranean East through critical research, community engagement, and South-South solidarity.

Research — Four Clusters

CELME's research is organised into four clusters that together map the political, ecological, and epistemic conditions of the Mediterranean East. Each cluster links ongoing research projects to public events, outputs, collaborations, and community partnerships.

Cluster 1 — Economies/Ecologies of War, Ecocide, Pacification & Liberation

Cluster 2 — Communal and Regional Eco-Sovereignties

Cluster 3 — One Region: Decolonial Pasts and Futures

Cluster 4 — Med East in the Global South: Ecologies, Equalities, Emancipations

Explore the Research Clusters →

Latest Drops

CELME Director Nikolas Kosmatopoulos is back from Mexico City on an AUB mission!

At SEMONA (Semana Medio Oriente en América), Prof. Kosmatopoulos delivered keynote addresses and book talks to full rooms, and surveyed political ecology programs shaping ideas for CELME's own path forward.

The visit also included meetings with faculty and administration at CIDE, a top social science public research center in Mexico City, and UNAM, the largest public university in Mexico and Latin America, setting the stage for future faculty and student exchange and research partnerships.

A strong step for AUB's growing presence across Latin America.

Upcoming Event
Settler-Colonialism and the Age of Independence

Speaker: Joseph Massad

Location: Bathish Auditorium, West Hall

Date & Time: Thursday, October 1, 2026 · 5:00–6:30 PM

Joseph Massad (Columbia University) examines how notions of independence and self-determination, long framed as anti-colonial, originated with European colonial settlers.

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