Cartelli is a doctoral student in the anthropology department at Harvard. His dissertation research is concerned with the transformation of the J4 Esplanade, a waterfront promenade in Marseille, France. The J4 Esplanade is part of the largest urban development project currently under way in Europe, called “Euroméditerranée.” He is particularly interested in the changing uses and identifications of public space on the J4, now dominated by two new buildings, the Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilizations (MuCEM), and the Villa Méditerranée, a center for cross-cultural dialogue. As he begins to prepare to write his dissertation, he is also expanding his focus on the use of the “Mediterranean” discourse in this and other projects in Marseille and the role such a label plays in whitewashing the potentially controversial nature of a large-scale urban development scheme.
