I am a historian of the medieval Mediterranean world and the exchange between Iberia, North Africa, and the Near East. I research the porousness of medieval boundaries, particularly how textual and visual traditions traversed religious, cultural, and racial boundaries in a period that has long been mischaracterized as insular and stagnant. Working primarily with Arabic and Castilian manuscripts from the multi-confessional, multilingual, and multicultural world of medieval Iberia, I explore how such costly objects, which were often diplomatic gifts or part of royal patrimony, reveal a wider web of intellectual and cultural exchange between Christian and Islamic milieus. Manuscripts that synthesize and combine information from both of these communities record the crossroads—both literal and literary—of these overlapping worlds. 

I received my Ph.D. in medieval history from the University of Chicago, where I also received my B.A. and M.A. Prior to teaching at Northwestern University, I taught at Texas State University and Bowdoin College.