News

Prof. Brian Catlos's book available in new translation...

Annjeanette Wiese — Tue, 12 Nov 2024 17:37:10 +0000

Prof. Brian Catlos's book available in new translation... Annjeanette Wiese Tue, 11/12/2024 - 10:37

Prof. Brian A. Catlos’s book, Kingdoms of Faith: A New History of Islamic Spain (Basic Books, 2018) has now been published in Turkish as Endülüs: Müslüman İspanya'nın Yeni Tarihi by the publisher Kronik Kitap.

The book has already appeared in Spanish, German, Polish, Complex Chinese, and Korean, and is forthcoming in Simplified Chinese and Arabic. This is Catlos’s second book to be translated into Turkish, after his earlier Ortaçağ Latin Hristiyan Âlemi Müslümanları: 1050-1614 (Muslims of Medieval Latin Christendom, 1050-1614)

Prof. Brian A. Catlos’s book, Kingdoms of Faith. A New History of Islamic Spain (Basic Books, 2018) has now been published in Turkish as Endülüs: Müslüman İspanya'nın Yeni Tarihi by the publisher Kronik Kitap.

Off

Traditional

White

HUMN alum in the news! Marcia (Whyte) Smart's cookbook Dinner Is Done...

Anonymous — Thu, 06 Jun 2024 17:08:38 +0000

HUMN alum in the news! Marcia (Whyte) Smart's cookbook Dinner Is Done... Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 06/06/2024 - 11:08

Marcia (Whyte) Smart (BA Humanities, 1996 ��ƷSM��ӰƬ) —

Not many people have been on a billboard in Times Square but Marcia Smart can count that as one of her many accomplishments! She made her billboard appearance in December 2023 after her cookbook, Dinner is Done, won Best Cookbook by the Independent Publisher’s Association.
See the full article here!

Off

Traditional

White

Spring 2025 Commencement -- Friday May 9

Anonymous — Tue, 04 Oct 2022 17:48:00 +0000

Spring 2025 Commencement -- Friday May 9 Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 10/04/2022 - 11:48

The Humanities Program invites you to come celebrate our 2025 Humanities Graduates! The celebration will take place on Friday May 9, 2025, in UMC 235. There will be a reception from 11-11:30 a.m. followed by a commencement ceremony from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. We hope to see you there!

Off

Traditional

White

"Artmaking and Late Modernity: Ineffability, Compulsion, Difficulty"

Anonymous — Fri, 25 Feb 2022 15:04:36 +0000

"Artmaking and Late Modernity: Ineffability, Compulsion, Difficulty" Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 02/25/2022 - 08:04

The Humanities Program (HUMN)

presents a talk

on Friday, September 30 at 4pm in Eaton Humanities 1B80

Michael Gallope

Associate Professor of Cultural Studies & Comparative Literature

University of Minnesota

"Artmaking and Late Modernity: Ineffability, Compulsion, Difficulty"

Deep Refrains Music, Philosophy, and the Ineffable

In this talk Professor Gallope examines work by Alice Coltrane, Bob Dylan, Ornette Coleman, Elton John, Beyoncé Knowles, and Ahmed Janka Nabay while engaging with the thought of Freud, Heidegger, Adorno, Fred Moten, and Marianna Ritchey.

Text to lecture https://acrobat.adobe.com/link/review?uri=urn:aaid:scds:US:5b6b8c9f-b53a-3dba-ac26-a51363f97059

Michael Gallope is an Associate Professor of Cultural Studies and Comparative Literature at the University of Minnesota. His research focuses on twentieth and twenty-first century music, continental philosophy, critical theory, popular culture, sound studies, and music of the African diaspora. He previously taught at New York University where he completed a Ph.D. in Musicology as well as an Advanced Certificate in Poetics and Theory, and at the University of Chicago where he was a Harper-Schmidt Fellow in the Society of Fellows. He is the author of Deep Refrains Music, Philosophy, and the Ineffable (U of Chicago Press, 2017).

Michael Gallope’s webpage

Off

Traditional

White

Annjeanette Wiese's Narrative Truthiness releases Oct. 1

Anonymous — Tue, 28 Sep 2021 15:23:47 +0000

Annjeanette Wiese's Narrative Truthiness releases Oct. 1 Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 09/28/2021 - 09:23

Humanities faculty member Annjeanette Wiese's book Narrative Truthiness: The Logic of Complex Truth in Hybrid (Non)Fiction releases October 1.

Narrative Truthiness explores the complex nature of truth by adapting Stephen Colbert’s concept of truthiness (which on its own repudiates complexity) into something nuanced and positive, what Annjeanette Wiese calls “narrative truthiness.” Narrative truthiness holds on to the importance of facts while complicating them by looking at different types of truth, as well as the complexity, contradictions, and consequences of truth in the context of human experience.

Wiese uses narrative theory to analyze several examples of hybrid (non)fiction: works that refuse to exist as either fiction or nonfiction alone and that challenge monolithic definitions of truth. She examines memoirs by Lauren Slater, Michael Ondaatje, Binjamin Wilkomirski, Tim O’Brien; fiction by Julian Barnes, Richard Powers, W. G. Sebald; Onion headlines; comics and graphic memoirs by Joe Sacco, Art Spiegelman, and David Small; and fake news.

Narrative Truthiness foregrounds the complexity that is inherent in human understanding and experience and in the process demonstrates the significance of the complex tensions between what we feel to be true and what is true, and how we are shaped by both.

Praise for the book:

“Beautifully written, Narrative Truthiness takes the reader on a trip through lies, hoaxes, satire, the search for origins, the fabrication of memories, the construction of the verisimilar, and—through all these narrative modes and themes—the quest for authenticity. Wiese makes a powerful plea in favor of a literary conception of truth that acknowledges the complexity of truth and does not limit it to the accurate presentation of facts, without, however, rejecting any kind of factuality.”—Marie-Laure Ryan, coeditor of Possible Worlds Theory and Contemporary Narratology

“Narrative Truthiness provides a new window into thinking about the interactions between fact and fiction, and how we need one to understand the other, through a focus on texts that straddle the line between representative and fictional narrative. It is well researched and theoretically sophisticated.”—Marjorie Worthington, author of The Story of “Me”: Contemporary American Autofiction

Humanities faculty member Annjeanette Wiese's book Narrative Truthiness: The Logic of Complex Truth in Hybrid (Non)Fiction releases October 1.

Off

Traditional

White

Humanities Program Statement on systemic racism

Anonymous — Thu, 18 Jun 2020 15:42:49 +0000

Humanities Program Statement on systemic racism Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 06/18/2020 - 09:42

Please see below or follow this link to the Humanities Program statement regarding systemic racism.

Sent to HUMN students on 6.15.20

Humanities Program Statement on the George Floyd Uprisings

The recent killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery make clear that black lives are not safe in the United States. Despite decades of efforts to eradicate it, racism continues to shape the systems that order our society. Some people have stood to protest these racist systems while others have taken a knee. Hundreds of thousands have marched in the streets, peacefully affirming that Black Lives Matter. We admire their courage, join that affirmation, and mourn the many black lives lost because it is not yet true.

Some say that systemic racism does not exist. Current events conspire with history to prove them wrong. It was 1931 in Birmingham, Alabama. Three young black men were arrested, beaten, and jailed for a crime they did not commit. One was Angelo Herndon, an activist and labor organizer. Three young white women had been shot, two were dead. The third was brought to see the prisoners. "No," she told police, "It was some other black man." Herndon wrote,

Yet we knew that we were not through with the messy business, for the lynchers were still there and our acquittal might so anger them that there was a likelihood that they would storm the jail and mete out "justice" to us in one-hundred-per-cent American style—a style draped in the stars and stripes and holding a Bible in its blood-stained hand.

Systemic racism exists. How else did one-hundred-per-cent American justice come to mean white people killing black people under cover of the flag and a holy book? More to the point, why do politicians still assert these connections?

We condemn systemic racism, the police brutality that it excuses, and the authoritarian politics that it supports. But we also acknowledge that we must do more to root out systemic racism in our practices.

The Humanities Program is committed to creating inclusive learning environments where diverse perspectives are recognized, respected, and seen as a source of strength. We bear a responsibility to contribute positively to an intellectual community enriched and enhanced by diversity. To this end, we commit to revising reading lists in Humanities Program courses so as to include more authors of color and voices from oppressed groups. We also commit to expanding efforts to broaden and diversify our faculty and student community. Developing new interdisciplinary courses for Gen Ed "Diversity" designation is a measurable first step that takes us in the right direction.

We invite you to suggest other ways to make the Humanities Program more diverse and inclusive. We welcome you and your ideas.

Faculty of the Humanities Program

College of Arts & Sciences

��ƷSM��ӰƬ

Please follow this link to the Humanities Program statement on systemic racism.

Off

Traditional

White

JLF Colorado event: Anti-Racism In A System Built Upon Racism

Anonymous — Wed, 10 Jun 2020 18:05:29 +0000

JLF Colorado event: Anti-Racism In A System Built Upon Racism Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 06/10/2020 - 12:05

You're invited to attend this FREE Event:

Anti-Racism In A System Built Upon Racism

Join Colorado writers and scholars of color in a conversation about structural racism and how America can dismantle this system.
Sunday, June 14, 2020 from 6:00 PM - 7:30 PM MDT
Natalie Avalos: Professor of Ethnic Studies ��ƷSM��ӰƬ
Jeanine Canty: Professor of Ecopsychology Naropa University
Suzi Q. Smith: Renowned Denver Poet, Artist, Writer, and Activist
David Heska Wanbli Weiden: Author of Winter Counts and Professor of Native American Studies and Political Science Metro State University

JLF Colorado

Off

Traditional

White

Prof. Catlos to be featured author at Jaipur Literary Festival, 22–27 January

Anonymous — Mon, 23 Dec 2019 16:15:23 +0000

Prof. Catlos to be featured author at Jaipur Literary Festival, 22–27 January Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 12/23/2019 - 09:15

Prof. Brian A. Catlos will be a featured author at the Jaipur Literary Festival taking place from 22–27 January at the Diggi Palace in Jaipur, India. In a session sponsored by the Agha Khan Foundation he will be interviewed by best-selling author, William Dalrymple, regarding Catlos’s recent book, Kingdoms of Faith. A New History of Islamic Spain (Basic: 2018). The largest free literary festival in the world, past speakers have ranged from Nobel Laureates J.M. Coetzee, Orhan Pamuk and Muhammad Yunus, Man Booker Prize winners Ben Okri, Margaret Atwood and Paul Beatty. An annual event that goes beyond literature, the Festival has also hosted Amartya Sen, Amitabh Bachchan, the late A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, Oprah Winfrey, Stephen Fry, Thomas Piketty and former president of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai.

Off

Traditional

White

Humanities Faculty in the News: "Play Therapy"

Anonymous — Mon, 11 Nov 2019 03:27:24 +0000

Humanities Faculty in the News: "Play Therapy" Anonymous (not verified) Sun, 11/10/2019 - 20:27

Read the ��ƷSM��ӰƬ Today article about Associate Professor Oliver Gerland's play "Play Therapy," running from Nov. 7-10!

Inclusive casting brings all abilities on stage for ‘Play Therapy’

From the article: “I’ve found that creating theater with people whose minds work differently than typical and who come into the room with a different set of talents and qualities is extremely exciting,” [Oliver Gerland] said.

Off

Traditional

White

Brian Catlos’s Kingdoms of Faith

Anonymous — Fri, 27 Apr 2018 02:04:28 +0000

Brian Catlos’s Kingdoms of Faith Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 04/26/2018 - 20:04

Brian Catlos’s Kingdoms of Faith. A New History of Islamic Spainto

Brian Catlos’s recent book Kingdoms of Faith: A New History of Islamic Spain (Basic: 2018) has just been published in Spanish as Reinos de fe. Una nueva historia de la España musulmana by Pasado y Presente, with a prologue by leading Spanish historian, Eduardo Manzano.

Translations to Polish, German, Korean, and Simplified and Complex Chinese.

A magisterial, myth-dispelling history of Islamic Spain spanning the millennium between the founding of Islam in the seventh century and the final expulsion of Spain's Muslims in the seventeenth In Kingdoms of Faith, award-winning historian Brian A. Catlos rewrites the history of Islamic Spain from the ground up, evoking the cultural splendor of al-Andalus, while offering an authoritative new interpretation of the forces that shaped it. Prior accounts have portrayed Islamic Spain as a paradise of enlightened tolerance or the site where civilizations clashed. Catlos taps a wide array of primary sources to paint a more complex portrait, showing how Muslims, Christians, and Jews together built a sophisticated civilization that transformed the Western world, even as they waged relentless war against each other and their coreligionists. Religion was often the language of conflict, but seldom its cause–a lesson we would do well to learn in our own time.

Advance praise:

“This is a lively and interesting new account of medieval Spain and Portugal which steers away from the usual stereotypes and gives us a new, and much more nuanced account of relations and interactions between the various communities and faith groups in the peninsula.”
—Hugh Kennedy, professor of Arabic at SOAS, University of London, and author of Caliphate: The History of an Idea and Muslim Spain and Portugal: A Political History of al-Andalus

“Brian Catlos'sKingdoms of Faithoffers an insightful and nuanced view of Islamic Spain from its origins in the eighth century to the poignant demise of Islamic presence, as exemplifed by his brilliant reflection on Cervantes's fictional Morisco character, Ricote. Based upon a masterly command of sources and the secondary literature, Catlos eschews the hyperbolic descriptions of Islam in Iberia and the exaggerated claims of tolerance while, at the same time, showing its many accomplishments and enduring legacy. It is a brilliant, well-written, and well-researched book that will force historians to see the Islamic presence in the peninsula in a new light.”

—Teofilo Ruíz, distinguished professor of history, UCLA

“In Kingdoms of Faith, Brian A. Catlos takes us through the kaleidoscopic interplay of Muslim-Christian relations, bringing clarity to a complex narrative. His deft analysis illuminates the forces brought to bear in creating both the myth and reality of life in 'Moorish' Spain.”

— Thomas F. Glick, professor of history, emeritus, Boston University, and author ofIslamic and Christian Spain in the Early Middle Ages and From Muslim Fortress to Christian Castle

“Mediterranean studies have been shaped in an informative and innovative way by Brian Catlos’ contributions in the recent decades. His incursion now into the history of a specific region and polity – that of al-Andalus (Medieval Iberia under Muslim rule) - brings to the fore the same qualities that characterize his previous work: an inquisitive and incisive mind that hones in on perceptive questions, combined with the ability to recreate past events in an appealing manner for a wide audience.”

— Maribel Fierro, Research Professor, Institute of Languages and Cultures of the Mediterranean, CSIC (Madrid), and editor of The Western Islamic world: eleventh to eighteenth centuries (The New Cambridge History of Islam, II)

“Kingdoms of Faith constitutes a fresh and original contribution to the history of al-Andalus, rooted in the author's profound knowledge of medieval iberian history. Catlos has managed to produce a very well-written and lively narrative that provides an up-to-date synthesis of the most recent developments in this field of history.”

— Alejandro García Sanjuán, professor of History, University of Huelva, and author of Coexistencia y conflictos : minorías religiosas en la Península Ibérica durante la Edad Media

Kingdoms of Faith will be published in the UK by Hurst, translations in German (Frankfurt: Beck Verlag), Simplified Chinese (Beijing: Gingko), and Complex Chinese (Taipei: Owl Press) are forthcoming.

Brian Catlos’s previous books include:

• The Victors and the Vanquished: Christians and Muslims of Catalonia and Aragon, 1050–1300 (Cambridge: 2004) – co-winner of the John E. Fagg Prize for the best book in Spanish and Latin American History (2005) and the biennial Premio del Rey for the best book in Spanish history before 1512 (2006) from the American Historical Association

• Infidel Kings and Unholy Warriors: Power, Faith and Violence in the Age of Crusade and Jihad(Farrar, Strauss & Giroux, 2014) – honorable mention in the 2015 PROSE Awards

• Muslims of Latin Christendom, ca. 1050–1614(Cambridge: 2014) – winner of the Albert Hourani Prize for the best book on Middle Eastern and Islamic History from the Middle East Studies Association (2014); winner of the Charles Homer Haskins Medal for a distinguished book on Medieval Studies from the Medieval Academy of America (2018); winner of the Kayden Book Award for best book (triennial) in History and the Arts (2018)

• The Rough Guide to Languedoc and Roussillon (Rough Guides: 2000–)

He also appeared in the PBS documentary: Cities of Light: The Rise and Fall of Islamic Spain

Off

Traditional

White