I am a historian of the medieval Mediterranean world, specifically the intellectual exchange between Iberia, North Africa, and the Near East. I research the porousness of medieval boundaries, particularly how textual and intellectual 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 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 Texas State University, I taught at Bowdoin College.