Not His Mother’s Son? Genealogy and Elite Identity in Andalusian Historiography - A talk by Denise Filios September 20, 2011

Did a mother’s ethnic identity affect that of her sons in al-Andalus? Professor Filios explores mother-son relations and complex constructions of elite identity in early Islamic historiography.

Denise K. Filios is a professor in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of Iowa. Among other works, she is the author of Performing Women in the Middle Ages: Sex, Gender, and the Iberian Lyric. Her teaching and research interests include medieval Spanish literature, women in literature, performance, and North African-Spanish cultural contacts from 711 to the present. She is currently developing a project on depictions of Al-Andalus in North American, Spanish, and North African historiography and literature.

Organized by the IAS Collaborative Mediterranean Identities from the Middle Ages to Today.

Official Website: http://www.cmedst.umn.edu