Brian Catlos

Brian Catlos' book is being translated

Anonymous — Mon, 26 Aug 2024 14:22:37 +0000

Brian Catlos' book is being translated Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 08/26/2024 - 08:22

Professor Brian Catlos' book, Kingdoms of Faith: A New History of Islamic Spain (NYC: Basic, 2018) is being translated into Russian, Turkish, Arabic, and simplified Chinese in 2024.

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Brian Catlos receives a Guggenheim fellowship

Anonymous — Mon, 08 Jul 2024 13:36:39 +0000

Brian Catlos receives a Guggenheim fellowship Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 07/08/2024 - 07:36

Professor Brian Catlos received a Guggenheim fellowship to support his work on his project An Age of Convergence: Christians, Muslims and Jews in the Pre-Modern Mediterranean, a culmination of his scholarship to date showing when, how and why members of these three faith communities—which hail from Africa, the Middle East and Europe—together laid the foundations of Western modernity.

Read the article here.

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Brian Catlos honored for promoting diversity and inclusion

Anonymous — Wed, 16 Aug 2023 19:13:22 +0000

Brian Catlos honored for promoting diversity and inclusion Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 08/16/2023 - 13:13

Brian Catlos recieved the 2023 ASCEND award, which recognizes faculty, staff, and students for their efforts to promote diversity and inclusion. Catlos was selected as Faculty Awardee for his work on Mediterranean Studies and with the CU Mediterranean Studies Group (since 2011) and the Mediterranean Seminar, both of which he founded and directs (the latter with Sharon Kinoshita of UCSC). The CU Mediterranean Studies group is an interdisciplinary collaborative group which brings speakers to campus, organizes conferences, workshops and events, and supports faculty and graduate students through works-in-progress workshops, as well as conducting outreach with the Front Range community. As practiced by the Group, Mediterranean Studies works to move beyond Eurocentric narratives relating to the origin and emergence of the Modern West (broadly defined as the Abrahamic cultural sphere) and to integrate the histories of Europe, Africa and West Asia, and Christian, Muslim and Jewish societies and cultures. This approach is reflected in his recent textbook The Sea in the Middle: The Mediterranean World, 650-1650.

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Brian Catlos' work featured in the New York Times

Anonymous — Tue, 22 Nov 2022 17:04:48 +0000

Brian Catlos' work featured in the New York Times Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 11/22/2022 - 10:04

Brian Catlos' work was featured in the New York Times November 3, 2022. You can find the article, "In Search of a Lost Spain," here.

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Brian A. Catlos publishes a new textbook and companion sourcebook

Anonymous — Mon, 12 Sep 2022 18:37:08 +0000

Brian A. Catlos publishes a new textbook and companion sourcebook Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 09/12/2022 - 12:37

Brian A. Catlos, Professor of Religious Studies, has published a new textbook and companion sourcebook, The Sea in the Middle: The Mediterranean World, 650-1650 and Texts from the Middle. Learn more about these incredible resources here: http://www.mediterraneanseminar.org/the-sea-in-the-middle

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"‘Western Culture’ and Where it Really Came From" and Upcoming Talk with Brian A. Catlos

Anonymous — Thu, 20 Sep 2018 15:50:08 +0000

"‘Western Culture’ and Where it Really Came From" and Upcoming Talk with Brian A. Catlos Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 09/20/2018 - 09:50

Brian A. Catlos, Professor of Religious Studies, Jewish Studies, and Director of the CU Mediterranean Studies Group, recently published an article titled "‘Western Culture’ and Where it Really Came From" on Hurst Publishers' website. In this article, he discusses immigration, how "no one 'owns' culture and it is never static," and how "American and European culture exists as it does today thanks to the influence of outside peoples."

Additionally, Professor Catlos will present a talk this Saturday, September 22, 2018, from 5:15 PM -6:15 PM at the Boulder Public Library as part of the ZEE Jaipur Literature Festival@Boulder. Professor Catlos, along with Aun Hasan Ali, will look into the magisterial, myth-dispelling history of Islamic Spain, which spans the millennium between the founding of Islam in the 7th century, and the final expulsion of Spain’s Muslims in the 17th century. The festival invites attendees to examine the human experience through the reflections and imaginations of distinguished contemporary authors from across the globe. Learn more about ZEE JLF@Boulder here.

An Excerpt from ‘Western Culture’ and Where it Really Came From

This summer President Trump warned European leaders that immigration is “a very negative thing” and is in danger of “changing their culture.” It is a statement that resonates with anxieties felt broadly on the political right and which has crystalized in the nativist ethno-national, neo-fascist and racist political movements that have shockingly become mainstream in recent years. Pundits and politicians have been ringing alarm bells for some time regarding the supposed threat to “Western culture” and “Judeo-Christian values” posed by outsiders, especially people who look different or whose cultural priorities are assumed to be at odds with our own. It is Islamic culture that provokes the most fear in this regard, and candidates and talking heads now openly claim that as a religion and culture it is incompatible with western values. These demagogues harken back to a supposedly pure, white European culture of the past, one rooted in nations that trace their landed pedigree back for millennia, uncontaminated by outside influences, and that can be traced back ultimately to the supposedly-European legacy of imperial Rome, Classical Greece and the Hebrew Old Testament. However, their arguments are based on a false, romanticized view of the past, and an absolute misunderstanding of how culture works, what “Western culture” is, and what Islam’s role in its formation has been.

Read the full article on the Hurst Publishers' website Learn More �� Professor Catlos' Upcoming Talk

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Professor Brian Catlos' Latest Book Featured in The New Yorker

Anonymous — Fri, 20 Jul 2018 19:10:30 +0000

Professor Brian Catlos' Latest Book Featured in The New Yorker Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 07/20/2018 - 13:10

Professor Brian Catlos’s latest book, Kingdoms of Faith. A New History of Islamic Spain was featured in The New Yorker’s “Brief Notices” (23 May issue).

From The New Yorker

Kingdoms of Faith, by Brian A. Catlos (Basic). Rejecting histories of Islamic Spain that cast it as either a haven of peace or a center of conflict, this account explores the intricacies of a civilization built by Muslims, Christians, and Jews. Perusing a variety of sources, including medieval chronicles and poems, the author illuminates the motives that prompted Arab overlords to collaborate with the Visigothic nobility in the eighth century, and Christian princes to accommodate Muslim minorities centuries later. Catlos imparts an intimate sense of how members of different ethnic and religious communities negotiated subtle alliances and engaged in long-lasting cultural exchanges. The final lesson is that the legacy of Islamic Spain—“nine hundred years of creative engagement that took place despite religious difference”—endures.

Purchase "Kingdoms of Faith" Read the Review on The New Yorker

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Professor Brian Catlos Awarded 2018 Haskins Medal

Anonymous — Thu, 01 Feb 2018 16:31:44 +0000

Professor Brian Catlos Awarded 2018 Haskins Medal Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 02/01/2018 - 09:31

The 2018 Haskins Medal is awarded to Professor Brian Catlos for his monograph, Muslims of Medieval Latin Christendom, c. 1050-1614 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015). Below is the full announcement from the Medieval Academy of America.

Awarding the coveted Charles Homer Haskins Medal to Brian Catlos for his Muslims of Medieval Latin Christendom, c. 1050-1614 might at first be thought to owe much to its character as a truly timely book. Its current relevance is undeniable for its subject is Christian/Muslim relations in a formative period of European and Mediterranean history and one of its merits is presenting that history in a calm and cogent manner, resisting the temptation to over-sensationalize his materials. Yet it is important to state clearly that the medal is awarded even more for the admirable scope of the work and the commendable depth of its scholarship. Here is a truly magisterial study, wherein a scholar in control of an abundance of information inspires confidence in his precise and well-grounded conclusions through clarity, economy and evident good judgment.

This study boldly presents an entire field of crucial interest that has only in relatively recent decades come more sharply into scholarly focus, often through valuable but localized investigations. This book brings the mosaic pieces together, giving the broad view needed at this stage. Both geographically and chronologically comprehensive, the book generates not only a synthesis but a distinctive and creative reinterpretation. It provides the thorough and nuanced analysis that we must have if we are to understand the fascinating vitality in an entire range of interactions as both sides faced challenges that emerged as Muslim societies continued through crusade and conquest to live within Christian territories.

In its breadth of approach and through the commendably tireless investigation of both archival deposits and secondary scholarship from both East and West, the book establishes a model for research and sets a standard for future work which will draw upon its panoramic narrative and its close analysis of particular sites no less than on its breathtaking territorial sweep which takes us from the Iberian peninsula, to Italy, North Africa, the Latin East, Poland and Hungary. A view that so successfully combines telescope and microscope offers critical views on received wisdom that will enliven scholarship for decades.

Happily, it can be said finally that these scholarly heights are not reached at the cost of imposing disappointingly deadening prose on readers. To the contrary, the narrative and argument flow smoothly, bringing the case, often of a revisionist nature, fully to life. Scholars and students (hopefully, merging categories) will read this book with profit for a long time to come.

Committee members: Richard W. Kaeuper (Chair); Jocelyn Wogen Brown; Alastair Minnis.

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Brian Catlos to speak about Jewish and Muslim relations in 11th-century Islamic Spain

Anonymous — Thu, 31 Aug 2017 16:21:30 +0000

Brian Catlos to speak about Jewish and Muslim relations in 11th-century Islamic Spain Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 08/31/2017 - 10:21

One night in 1066, Muslim inhabitants of the city of Granada in Spain rose up and slaughtered their Jewish neighbors in what has been described by some as the first pogrom on European soil.

But peeling back the layers of history reveals a much more complex story, one that will be explored in an upcoming free, public lecture titled “Jewish Pride and Muslim Prejudice in 11th-century Islamic Spain” on Sept. 13 from 7 to 8 p.m. at McDaniel Hall, Rm. 101, 1500 First St. on the Adams State University campus in Alamosa. Complimentary light refreshments will be provided.

Brian A. Catlos, professor of religious studies at the ��, will present the lecture in conjunction with the Adams State University Faculty Lecture Series. For more than ten years, this series has offered free lectures on a variety of subjects and disciplines. His lecture is also part of CU Boulder’s Peak to Peak Lecture Series, which brings CU Boulder humanities scholars to communities around Colorado. The series is a partnership between the CU Boulder Program in Jewish Studies and the CU Boulder Office for Outreach and Engagement.

Catlos’s research centers on Muslim-Christian-Jewish relations and ethno-religious identity in medieval Europe and the Islamic World. This lecture will focus on a significant piece of history in Granada, where a Jewish family rose to dominate this Muslim kingdom, administering its finances, leading its troops into battle and ultimately attempting to seize control of the throne.

“In societies framed by religious hierarchies the rhetoric of religion often became the language of politics,” said Catlos, who is one of the world’s leading figures in the study of Mediterranean history. “Ultimately this story is less about prejudice than politics, about a world in which Muslims and Jews were profoundly and deeply connected, and of a massacre that may not have happened.”

In 2014, Catlos published Infidel Kings and Unholy Warriors: Faith, Power and Violence in the Age of Crusade and Jihad, which received an honorable mention from the PROSE awards, as well as Muslims of Medieval Latin Christendom, which won the Albert Hourani Book Prize, the most important book prize in the field of Middle Eastern and Islamic studies. The Victors and the Vanquished: Christians and Muslims of Catalonia and Aragon, 1050-1300, published in 2004, won two prizes from the American Historical Association. His next book, Kingdoms of Faith: A New History of Islamic Spain, will be published in spring 2018. More at www.brianacatlos.com.

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Brian Catlos Receives Award for Excellence in Leadership and Service from the Boulder Faculty Association

Anonymous — Fri, 10 Mar 2017 17:46:10 +0000

Brian Catlos Receives Award for Excellence in Leadership and Service from the Boulder Faculty Association Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 03/10/2017 - 10:46

Dr. Brian Catlos was awarded a 2017 Award for Excellence in Leadership and Service by the Boulder Faculty Association for his work on Mediterranean Studies and the CU Mediterranean Studies Group at CU Boulder. This award honors excellence in teaching, service, and research to nominated CU Boulder faculty members. Congratulations, Dr. Catlos, on this well-deserved recognition!

Additionally, Dr. Catlos has been invited to give the Fifth Annual Boyce Gray Lecture at Northwestern University on April 26, 2017. Sponsored by the History Department and the Chabraja Center for Historical Studies, the lecture series honors the achievements of Professor Gray Boyce, a medieval historian who served as chairman of the Department of History from 1948 to 1966. Dr. Catlos’s talk is titled, “Foreigners in their Own Lands: The Muslims of Medieval Europe.”

On March 14, 2017, Dr. Catlos was invited to speak at the University Womens’ Club Luncheon Lecture. His talk was titled "From Bob Dylan to Bill Gates: What Does Islam Have to do with Modern Western Culture?" In this lecture, Dr. Catlos provided his historical perspective on nationalism and its application to our current national and international political climate with regard to the Middle East and Islam. He discussed how Islam has affected Western culture including rock and roll, the game of chess, and the digital revolution. Dr. Catlos also addressed how medieval Spain and the Mediterranean world occupy a crucial place in the evolution of what we call “the West,” and why scholars are reconfiguring deeply rooted notions of where and how western culture originated and developed.

Dr. Brian Catlos is a Professor of Religious Studies at CU Boulder and is one of the world’s leading figures in the study of Mediterranean history. His work centers on Muslim-Christian-Jewish relations and ethno-religious identity in medieval Europe and the Islamic World. In 2014, he published Infidel Kings and Unholy Warriors: Faith, Power and Violence in the Age of Crusade and Jihad, as well as Muslims of Medieval Latin Christendom, which won the Albert Hourani Book Prize, the most important award in the field of Middle Eastern and Islamic studies.

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