Research Interests
North African Literature and Film, Modern Spanish Literature and Film, al-Andalus (Medieval Muslim Iberia), Modern Arabic Literature, Mediterranean Studies, Postcolonial Studies, Travel Writing
Education
PH.D. at Harvard University
Awards and Honors
Conrad Humanities Scholar, 2018-2023
Lincoln Excellence for Assistant Professors (LEAP) Award, 2017-18
National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship, 2016-2017
Additional Campus Affiliations
Center for Global Studies
Center for South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies
European Union Center
Medieval Studies
Program in Jewish Culture and Society
Spanish & Portuguese
Unit for Criticism and Interpretive Theory
External Links
Honors & Awards
Conrad Humanities Scholar, 2018-2023
Lincoln Excellence for Assistant Professors (LEAP) Award, 2017-18
National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship, 2016-2017
Highlighted Publications
Book
Colonial al-Andalus: Spain and the Making of Modern Moroccan Culture (The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2018). Winner of the 2019 L. Carl Brown AIMS Book Prize in North African Studies; Honorable Mention for the Nikki Keddie Book Award from the Middle East Studies Association; Silver Medal for the Laura Shannon Prize in European studies from the Nanovic Institute. Translated into Spanish as Al Ándalus en Marruecos(Almuzara, 2019).
Selected Journal Articles and Book Chapters
Co-authored with Gonzalo Fernández Parrilla. "What Is Moroccan Literature? History of an Object in Motion." Journal of Arabic Literature 52 (2021): 97-123.
“Spanish in a Global Key.” Journal of Spanish Cultural Studies 20.1-2 (2019): 53-65.
“Moroccan Jews and the Spanish Colonial Imaginary, 1903-1951.” The Journal of North African Studies 24.1 (2019): 86-110.
“El mito de al-Ándalus en el mundo mediterráneo moderno.” Paradigma Alhambra: Variación del mito de al-Ándalus. Ed. José Antonio González Alcantud. Granada: Universidad de Granada, 2018. 121-160.
“Franco’s Hajj: Moroccan Pilgrims, Spanish Fascism, and the Unexpected Journeys of Modern Arabic Literature.” PMLA 132.5 (October 2017): 1097-1116. Honorable Mention for the William Riley Parker Prize, awarded by the Modern Language Association for an outstanding article in PMLA.
“‘In Andalucía, There Are No Foreigners’: Andalucismo from Transperipheral Critique to Colonial Apology.” Journal of Spanish Cultural Studies 15.4 (2015): 399-417.
“Proyectando al-Andalus: Alegorías andalusíes en el cine árabe moderno.” Andalusíes: Antropología e historia cultural de una elite marroquí. Ed. José Antonio González Alcantud and Sandra Rojo Flores. Madrid: Abada, 2015. 213-240.
“The Invention of Al-Andalus: Discovering the Past and Creating the Present in Granada’s Islamic Tourism Sites.” The Journal of North African Studies 19.1 (2014): 27-55.
“The Beginning (or End) of Moroccan History: Historiography, Translation, and Modernity in Ahmad b. Khalid al-Nasiri and Clemente Cerdeira.” International Journal of Middle East Studies 44 (2012): 399-420.
Critical Editions
La venganza venturosa by Lope de Vega. Introduction, text, notes, and critical apparatus. In Comedias de Lope Vega. Parte X. Lérida: Editorial Mileno, 2010. 231-359.
Selected Literary Essays and Journalism
“The South and I.” Sures Summer 2018: 14-16.
“The Reconquista of the Mosque of Córdoba.” Foreign Policy. April 10, 2015.
“Study Abroad.” Harvard Review 40 (2011): 210-218.
“The Road to Damascus.” New England Review 31.3 (2010): 168-175. Cited in The Best American Travel Writing 2011. Ed. Sloane Crosley and Jason Wilson. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2011.
“Letter from Algeria: Waiting for a Goal.” The American Scholar Fall 2010: 6-11. Cited in The Best American Sports Writing 2011. Ed. Jane Leavy and Glenn Stout. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2011.
“Soaping Up.” Saudi Aramco World, June/July 2010: 16-23.
“Letter from Madrid.” McSweeney’s Quarterly 34 (Spring 2010): 13-15.
“The Blind Plumber of Tetouan.” Virginia Quarterly Review Winter 2010: 102-113.
“Letter from Morocco: The Living and the Dead.” The American Scholar Fall 2009: 7-11.
“The Violence Network.” Ideas Section. Boston Sunday Globe. January 18, 2009. C1-C2. Reprinted in “Best Columns: The U.S.” section. The Week. January 30, 2009: 12.
Media Appearances
“Colonial Andalus.” Maghrib in Past and Present Podcasts, Episode 42. July 18, 2018.
Interview for “Cuando Franco era considerado ‘un buen musulmán.’” El Independiente (Spain). May 11, 2018.
Interview for “Morocco, Malikis and Me.” Heart and Soul. BBC World Service. September 7, 2013.
Interview for “Watching the War.” On the Media. National Public Radio. January 23, 2009.
Recent Publications
Calderwood, E. S. (2023). On Earth or in Poems: The Many Lives of al-Andalus. Harvard University Press. https://doi.org/10.4159/9780674292970
Calderwood, E. (2022). Strait Flow. PMLA, 137(5), 871-877. https://doi.org/10.1632/S0030812922000712
Calderwood, E. S., & Fernández Parrilla, G. (2021). What Is Moroccan Literature? History of an Object in Motion. Journal of Arabic Literature, 52(1-2), 97-123. https://doi.org/10.1163/1570064x-12341421
Calderwood, E. (2019). Moroccan Jews and the Spanish colonial imaginary, 1903–1951. Journal of North African Studies, 24(1), 86-110. https://doi.org/10.1080/13629387.2018.1459261
Calderwood, E. (2019). Spanish in a global key. Journal of Spanish Cultural Studies, 20(1-2), 53-65. https://doi.org/10.1080/14636204.2019.1609234