On Earth or in Poems: The Many Lives of al-Andalus

by Eric Calderwood

2026 Award in Humanities

Jury Statement

On Earth or in Poems: The Many Lives of al-Andalus is a new interpretation of al-Andalus—the common name for the Muslim rule in the Iberian Peninsula from the 8th to 15th centuries—in the context of its political and cultural afterlives in the contemporary moment. Alongside its analytical rigor, historical depth, and elegant composition, Eric Calderwood’s book is notable for its timely significance. With an impressive command of his object of study, Calderwood walks the reader from an accessible review of the deep history of al-Andalus up to its contemporary appropriations and contradictions by a range of actors: Arabists, Berber activists, Palestinian activists, feminists and cultural producers. In doing so, Calderwood refuses the conventions and clichés about what al-Andalus “was” and instead asks the reader to confront complexity: the ways in which al-Andalus has been, and continues to be, mobilized to at once challenge and to reinforce binary thinking, including both deconstructing and reaffirming nationalist, colonial and civilizational narratives.

Alongside its eloquent historiographical achievement for a range of fields, On Earth or in Poems is strikingly relevant to our current historical crossroads. It represents the very best of the critical perspectives from the peripheries of Europe: a story emerging from the Western edge of Europe, traveling around the Mediterranean, only to rearticulate its cultural and political challenges in the space-in-between Europe and its essentially migrant history. In this, it amply offers, in the words of the Shannon Prize, “new ways of thinking about contemporary Europe as a whole”, decentering the continent as the provenance of any single cultural, aesthetic or religious tradition. In short, it is European Studies at its best in that it aligns effortlessly and traces in admirable depth cultural, political and religious histories, while at the same time examining their relevance for a wider Europe. At a moment when powerful voices are agitating in favor of univocal, hierarchical and ultimately fictional “shared traditions” of Europe, Calderwood provides a response of literal and material shared histories whose contemporary expressions demonstrate multiplicity and defy any neat historical or geographical unities.

With On Earth and in Poems, Eric Calderwood has produced a penetrating and accomplished work, a document of our time that will be debated and drawn upon for years to come. It stands as an achievement for European Studies, within and outside of Europe. It sets a new standard for interpreting the ongoing relevance of our foundational political and cultural histories. It is a distinguished choice for the Nanovic’s 2026 Laura Shannon Prize.