The Ira Wender Lecture Series for Middle Eastern Cultural Understanding proudly presents a lecture by Eric Calderwood, Professor of Comparative Literature and LAS Dean’s Distinguished Professorial Scholar, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Title: Al-Andalus and Palestine: Past, Present, Future

*Al-Andalus is Medieval Islamic Spain

In an interview with the French newspaper Le Monde in 1983, Palestinian poet Mahmud Darwish called Palestine “the Andalus of the possible.” Taking a cue from Darwish’s words, in this talk Professor Calderwood will ask: what has the memory of al-Andalus (Muslim Iberia) made possible for Palestinian writers and thinkers?