Fred Astren: “Medieval Jewish History and the New Mediterranean Studies

November 9, 2009 | 4-5 PM | Free & Open to the Public
Humanities 1 Building, Room 210, UC Santa Cruz
Directions and Parking Information

Fred Astren, Chair of Jewish Studies at San Francisco State University, holds degrees in Medieval History (Minnesota), Arabic (UC Berkeley), and Near Eastern Studies (UC Berkeley). His interests include minority/sectarian history and sacred history in the Mediterranean Middle Ages, with special focus on Jewish history under Islam, Jewish-Muslim relations, and the Karaite Jewish sect. Among his publications are Karaite Judaism and Historical Understanding (University of South Carolina, 2004), which won an award from the Koret Foundation, and a co-edited volume, Judaism and Islam: Boundaries, Interaction, and Communication (Brill, 2000). The present talk is drawn from his book-in-progress on Jews in the early medieval Mediterranean.

Presented by the Mediterranean Seminar. This event was made possible by a generous grant from the David B. Gold Foundation, with co-sponsorship by Center for Jewish Studies and by Cowell College. Staff support provided by the Institute for Humanities Research.

Click here to download the event poster.