News & Events
Interfaith Coexistence Then and Now: Lessons for Multicultural Spain
Wednesday, April 3rd
7:00 PM, Gorecki Center 204A, CSB
This lecture will explore the history of a widespread idea about al-Andalus (medieval Muslim Iberia): namely, the idea that al-Andalus was a place of exceptional tolerance, where Christians, Muslims, and Jews coexisted in peace and harmony. This idea about medieval Iberian history first emerged in the early part of the twentieth century, and since then, it has served a wide array of cultural and political projects, not only in Spain but also in contexts as diverse as Morocco, Syria, Iraq, Israel/ Palestine, and the United States. Moving between these far-flung contexts, this talk will ask: why and how have modern debates about interfaith life in al-Andalus shaped our understanding of (and hopes for) interfaith and cross-cultural relations in the present?
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Eric Calderwood, Ph.D., is Associate Professor in the Department of Comparative and World Literature at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he is the 2018-2023 Conrad Humanities Scholar and holds faculty appointments in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, the Program Medieval Studies, the Program in Jewish Culture and Society, the Center for South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, and the Unit for Criticism and Interpretive Theory. He earned his doctorate from Harvard University in 2011 and his research interests include medieval Muslim Iberia, modern Spanish and North African literature and film, Mediterranean studies, and Arabic literature. His first book, Colonial al-Andalus: Spain and the Making of Modern Moroccan Culture, was published by Harvard University in 2018. Journals in which his scholarly articles are published include Journal of Spanish Cultural Studies, The Journal of North African Studies, and International Journal of Middle East Studies. He also has contributed commentaries and essays to such venues as NPR, the BBC, and Foreign Policy. |
poesía y burritos
March 25, 2014
Poets and non-poets, shy people and extroverts were all invited to participate in a Spanish language poetry workshop during Spring 2014. Nineteen students joined together to read, write and critique poetry. Each week we read poems by notable Latin Americans such as Julia Esquivel (Guatemala), Juan Gelman (Argentina), Pablo Neruda (Chile), Claribel Alegría (Nicaragua) and Humberto Ak'abal (Guatemala). We had the privilege of a visit by the Colombian National Poetry prize winner, Carlos Satizábal where he guided us in a hands-on opportunity to write together while exploring and comparing the sources of poetic inspiration.
The core of the collective experience, though, was the development of our own writing practices, claiming poetic voices, making connections and finding poetry in expected places. This culminated in the first ever poesía y burritos on Tuesday March 25th at the McKeown Center on the SJU campus. We served vegetarian burritos (with all ingredients from the Minnesota Street Market) to a capacity crowd. Then we enjoyed an evening of poetry, laughter, sighs, cheers and more poetry.
Sponsored by the Department of Hispanic Studies and SJU Residential Life.
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voces múltiples * libertad * perspectiva * posibilidad Joe Balder Who is a poet? ritmo * voz * luz Julianna Coil What is the sound of a flame? |
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lo cotidiano: concreto y abstracto Nate Engel What is the texture of poetry?
la belleza en lugares inesperados Anna Klonowski Where is poetry? |
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ambigüedades intensas: sueños * vulnerabilidad * voz Jillian Andresen When does nonsense become clarity and illuminate the way?
transformaciones: ave * aguacate * luna Katherine Redmon How does poetry change you? |
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Some student comments: "... fue una experiencia muy bonita el escuchar a los "It was a fun opportunity to speak artistic Spanish in front "Era evidente que todos los alumnos habían crecido como "... the event was unforgettable and a lot of fun." "beautiful, foreign" -audience member |
