My primary teaching field is medieval and early modern Europe, with a specific emphasis on Iberian political, cultural, and religious history. Although I am trained as a Europeanist, Spain’s unique history also prompted me to secure a thorough knowledge of medieval Islamic historiography from the time of Muhammad until the fall of the Iberian Nasrid Kingdom of Granada in 1492. To enhance my expertise from a global perspective, I am prepared to teach elements of Chinese, Indian, and African medieval histories. My teaching experience, and my prior eight years of employment in the public sector, spurred me to embrace a teaching philosophy that emphasizes the development of each student’s intellectual curiosity, professional values, and communication skills. To capture the attention of students, I often place historical studies into dialogue with their personal life experiences and values. I find that challenging students to be reflective enables them to form more intensive and innovative lines of inquiry. Additionally, I explicitly state to students the necessity of developing strong writing, analytical, and speaking skills. Further, I express the importance of committing themselves to high standards of workmanship and personal ethics. Specifically, I emphasize to students that mastering these capabilities and adhering to these values are critical to their future advancement in their professional careers.
COURSE OFFERINGS
Upper-Division University History Courses
Medieval Spain and North Africa
Course Description: In this historical survey of the Spain and North Africa during the Middle Ages (600 c.e. to 1500 c.e.), we will explore the collapse of Visigothic Spain, the Islamic conquest and foundation of al-Andalus, the Spanish Christian Reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula, the splendor of the 2nd Umayyad Caliphate of Cordoba, the Almoravid and Almohad Dynasties, and finally, the creation of a unified, Catholic Spain. (Offered: Fall 2010) View my syllabus.
From Baghdad to Burgos:
Christians, Muslims, and Jews in the Medieval Mediterranean World
Course Description: In this advanced course on inter-cultural, religious, and political relations, we will explore and discuss the intensive interaction of Jewish, Islamic, and Christian communities during the medieval and early modern periods. Together, we will: witness an Islamic caliph’s gift of an elephant to a Christian king, follow the flow of silk and sugar across the Mediterranean Sea, watch a Jewish general lead an Islamic army into battle, lament the tragic outcome of the “curious” medicine of the Franks, experience the three faiths’ rediscovery of Greek philosophy and science, and bear witness to the tragedies of religious intolerance. This course focuses on what the great Spanish historian Americo Castro referred to as “convivencia”, the co-existence of medieval and early modern Jews, Christians, and Muslims.
Our exploration begins with an investigation of the simultaneous development and formation of medieval European and Islamic civilizations (600-1100). After acquiring this essential historical context, we will begin the critical process of exploring two key and counter-balancing Competitive Landscapes—in the west, the Iberian Peninsula and North Africa, and in the east, the Holy Land and Byzantium. By studying these two Competitive Landscapes, we will acquire an analytical framework that will prepare us for investigating five dominant Spheres of Contact in the greater Mediterranean. These include: Egypt, Iberia and North Africa, the Holy Land and Byzantium, Sicily and the central Mediterranean, and Constantinople/Ottoman Turkey.
The investigation of each Sphere of Contact will allow us to understand the manner in which these social groups interacted as well as assess their views of each other. We will study religious and cultural beliefs, economics and trade, political events and warfare, language and the arts, and intellectual and scientific issues.
Additionally, we will re-enact, using the “Reacting to the Past” pedagogy, a great war council held during the Second Crusade. This re-enactment, The Second Crusade: the War Council of Acre, 1148, "brings to life a dramatic moment in the history of the crusades. Students become the great gathering of monarchs, barons, religious authorities, and others that met as a war council in Acre on the eve of the Second Crusade, and 'react' as participants in the discussions and debates that might have been held there." Additionally, students will have the opportunity to pursue an “alternate” history/engineering assignment track that is integrated with the UCCS Medieval History—Trebuchet Working Group. In sum, the course highlights the region’s numerous medieval and early modern interconnectivities. (Offered: Spring 2011, Fall 2008) View my syllabus.
Beyond the Pillars of Hercules:
The Trans-Atlantic Empires of Spain and Portugal (1492-1713)
Course Description: In 1516, Spanish Emperor Charles V proudly proclaimed the motto, “Plus Ultra”, to signal to the world that Spain intended to surpass the Roman Empire by going beyond the Pillars of Hercules (the Strait of Gibraltar). Unlike the Romans, who considered the strait to be the extent of the known world, Spain ventured across the Atlantic Ocean. In the process, they encountered the Americas and established a global empire. This upper division course investigates the Spanish and Portuguese kingdoms’ earliest encounters with the New World, the formation of colonial settlements and governments, and the bi-directional flow of people and goods. Additionally, the class focuses on the cultural and religious challenges that resulted from the secret migration of Jews to the Americas, as well as the intermixing of European and Native American populations. (Offered: Spring 2009) View my syllabus.
Transformations in Early Modern Europe (1400-1800)
Course Description: Over the course of five centuries, Europe experienced massive cultural, economic, intellectual, and scientific transformations. Alongside the birth of the Renaissance, religious and political wars raged across the continent and in people’s hearts. European dynastic empires stretched across the globe, thereby bringing Europeans into intensive engagement with other cultures. Within this cauldron of connectivity, economic activity and trade flourished, political values diversified, and art explored new forms. In this course, students explore the social and economic transformations generated from new manners of accumulating wealth and status. Likewise, the course participants study the revolution of personal identity and Europeans’ formulation of a vision of themselves as “individuals”. Students re-enact, using the Reacting to the Past pedagogy, crucial scientific and theological events such as the 17th century papal trial of Galileo Galilee that pitted new cosmologies against religious dogmatism. Lastly, course participants consider how Europeans and “others” perceived and interacted with one another. (Offered: Fall 2009) View my syllabus.
Medieval Islamic Civilization: Material Culture, Scientists, and Philosophy (600-1300).
Course Description: In this upper-division course, students investigate the essential intellectual and material culture achievements produced by the Umayyad, Abbasid, and Fatimid Caliphates. The course argues that when the Prophet Muhammad (c. 570-632) brought Islam to the Arabian Peninsula, he initiated an impressive transformation of human civilization that outpaced and outcompeted European communities in almost every tangible measure. Scientific methods and exploration proliferated, religious and political philosophies cut new paths, and the arts benefited from generous patronage. (Offered: Spring 2010) View my syllabus.
Lower-Division University History Courses
The Medieval World
Course Description: In this historical survey of the Middle Ages (600 c.e. to 1300 c.e.), we will explore the time period in between the fall of the Roman Empire (“Late Antiquity”) until the emergence of the European Renaissance (1400s). Although we will primarily focus on the European experience, especially how Northern and Southern European peoples re-ordered their social, political, and cultural relations, we will also investigate Europeans’ relationship with their sibling culture, the Islamic civilization in the Mediterranean.
Our readings will begin with the collapse of the Western Roman Empire and the rise of the Eastern Roman Empire, later known as the Byzantine Empire that existed in modern-day Turkey until 1453 c.e. The Byzantine Empire was continuously plagued by Islamic threats to its southeast and fickle, competitive Christian European partners to its west. Likewise, at times it suffered from issues of internal political corruption and social decay as discussed by Procopius in The Secret History. From the ashes of the Roman Empire, which was devastated by Vandal and Visigothic invasions, Western Europeans regrouped themselves into regional kingdoms that generally amalgamated along common cultural practices that we now referred to as feudal society. In Marc Bloch’s book, Feudal Society, we will learn how power and relationships guided most aspects of European society. Subsequently, we will venture with Western Europeans to the Middle East (Syria, in particular) during the Crusades (1000s-1200s) and gather a new understanding of the complex interplay of cooperation, conflict, and mutual respect between Western European Christians, Byzantine Christians, and Mediterranean Muslims. In the first-person account of Usamah ibn-Munqidh, we will see Europeans, collectively known as “the Franks”, as the less sophisticated culture in relationship to Islamic peoples. In the final portion of the course we will return to Western Europe to evaluate how feudal society governed social and political relations in Catalonia, or what is now the region including Barcelona, Spain, and Flanders, the present-day nation of the Netherlands. The book Tormented Voices will recount common people’s precarious life-and-death survival in 12th century Spain, especially when centralized political control and power was fractured. Similarly Galbert of Bruge’s 12th century account, The Murder of Charles the Good, will highlight how Flemish society operated and how its nobles fought one another for political and economic control.
Cumulatively, this course is intended to complicate our perspective of the Middle Ages. Rather than simply viewing the Middle Ages through monochromatic lenses that highlight the niceties of European kings and queens, we will experience the disarray within Western Europe as it struggled to replace the political and social order left by the vacuum of the end of the Roman Empire. Lastly, the course will present the critical importance of Christian and Islamic exchange during the Middle Ages—not just through war, but also in social and even scientific interactions. (Offered: Fall 2010) View my syllabus.
The Rise of Modern Europe
Course Description: This course investigates Europe’s massive societal changes during the Renaissance, the continent’s war of religion, and Europe’s political expansion across the globe. In this course, students explore the social and economic transformations generated from new manners of accumulating wealth and status. Likewise, the course participants study the revolution of personal identity and Europeans’ formulation of a vision of themselves as “individuals”. Additionally, students re-enact, using the Reacting to the Past pedagogy, crucial scientific and theological events as evidenced by the 17th century papal trial of Galileo Galilee, which pitted new cosmologies against religious dogmatism. Lastly, course participants consider how Europeans and “others” perceived and interacted with one another. (Offered: Spring 2011) View my syllabus.
Introduction to Western Civilization I (Antiquity - 1500)
Course Description: In this historical survey, we will undertake the difficult process of answering the question, “What is ‘Western Civilization’ and why should we endeavor to study the topic?” The study of history is more than the accumulation of information about events, dates, and people – it is fundamentally about understanding who we are and how the past impacts and shapes our 21st century experiences. While Western Civilization is typically taught as the chronological progression of recorded history from the time of the Egyptians and Sumerians up until the birth of the United States of America, we will approach the topic from a substantially different perspective. While we will need to acquaint ourselves with key historical transitions – Antiquity (Sumeria, Egypt, Greek Civilizations), the Roman Era, the “Dark Ages” or Middle Ages (the formation of Christian Europe and the rise of Islam), and the Pre-Modern (the Age of Discovery) and Modern Eras– we will mostly focus our attention on key themes that resonate across time. We will discover what are the continuities and discontinuities that hold history “together.” Primarily, our task will be focused on repeatedly placing ourselves in the shoes of “others” and attempting to understand the world from their perspective. Thus, across time and for many cultural groups we will be asking: What were their religious, intellectual, and cultural values? How did they pursue economics and trade? What was their sense of politics and governance? How did they conceive of themselves as a group and how did they relate to “others”? Using these thematic lenses, we will compose a more meaningful understanding of Western Civilization, and perhaps, we might decide that it does not exist at all. Rather, we might end the semester with a more complex, fragmented, and rich understanding of how our past informs and shapes our 21st century lives. (Offered: Fall 2008, Fall 2009) View my syllabus.
Introduction to Western Civilization II (1500 - Modern Era)
Course Description: In this course we will study the history of “the West”, which is often ascribed to Europe and North America, from roughly the year 1500 until the present. This conception of “Western Civilization” is problematic because it implies that theses regions and their peoples existed and continue to exist as autonomous and disconnected entities from the rest of the world. More importantly, when Western Civilization interacts with other cultures and peoples in the world (“the globe”), the relationship between the two is viewed as unidirectional and one where only the West directs and influences the globe. In this class, we will study Western Civilization with a global approach and accept that information, ideas, values, beliefs, art, economics, and other issues flow back-and-forth among many cultural groups. In sum, we will utilize this course to investigate the major historical, cultural, scientific, and intellectual developments over the last 500 years. (Offered: Spring 2009, Spring 2010) View my syllabus.