Eric Calderwood's book Colonial al-Andalus: Spain and the Making of Modern Moroccan Culture wins a Laura Shannon Prize Silver Medal

The EU Center extends major congratulations to Eric Calderwood, associate professor of comparative & world literature and a EU Center affiliate, whose book, Colonial al-Andalus: Spain and the Making of Modern Moroccan Culture (The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2018), has been awarded a prestigious Laura Shannon Prize Silver Medal by the Nanovic Institute for European Studies at the University of Notre Dame. 

This year, the jury consisted of Dudley Andrew, the R. Selden Rose Professor of Film and Comparative Literature, Yale University; JoAnn DellaNeva, professor of Romance languages and literatures and academic director of Notre Dame’s London Global Gateway, University of Notre Dame; Lydia Goehr, professor of philosophy, Columbia University; Michael Jennings, the Class of 1900 Professor of Modern Languages and professor of German, Princeton University; and Declan Kiberd, the Donald and Marilyn Keough Professor of Irish Studies, University of Notre Dame.

The jury says of Colonial al-Andalus: “We have many accounts of ‘moorish’ influences in Spain, but almost none of the lingering shadow of the Spanish presence in Morocco. Colonial al-Andalus offers an original, deeply researched, and compelling narrative of a relationship of increasing international importance. With exemplary analyses of Spanish- and Arabic-language texts that demonstrate the pervasiveness of the ‘myth’ of Andalusia in both Spain and Morocco in modernity, Calderwood’s work is well documented, vivid in style, and timely.”

Colonial al-Andalus has won two additional awards to date: the 2019 L. Carl Brown AIMS Book Prize in North African Studies and Honorable Mention for the 2019 Nikki Keddie Book Award from the Middle East Studies Association. It has also been translated into Spanish as Al Ándalus en Marruecos (Almuzara, 2019).

Click here for more information on Colonial al-Andalus and here for more information on the 2020 Laura Shannon Prize.