Madinat al-Zahra Gallery Talk: Curators in Conversation

Please join us as Roberta Casagrande-Kim, ISAW Exhibitions Director, hosts a conversation with Antonio Vallejo Triano (Madinat al-Zahra Museum) and Eduardo Manzano Moreno (CSIC, Madrid) to discuss the genesis of this project. Antonio and Eduardo will address the themes of the exhibition, discuss the ancient artifacts on display, and evaluate the role of the Umayyad dynasty in the understanding of medieval Spain.

Antonio Vallejo Triano is curator of Cultural Heritage for the Junta de Andalucía and has served as the Director of the archaeological site of Madinat al-Zahra since 1985. Vallejo Triano received his Ph.D. in Humanities from the University of Jaén, Spain and has been an honorary member of the German Archaeological Institute since 1999. His publications include Madinat al-Zahra: Guía del Conjunto Arqueológico (2004), “Madinat al-Zahra: Transformation of a Caliphal City,” in Revisiting al-Andalus, Perspectives on the Material Culture of Islamic Iberia and Beyond (2007), La ciudad califal de Madinat al-Zahra (2010), and Arqueología de su arquitectura (2010). 

Eduardo Manzano Moreno is Research Professor at the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) in Madrid. He has been British Academy Global Professor at the University of St. Andrews, Tinker Professor at the University of Chicago and Research Fellow at St. John´s College in Oxford. He was Director of the Centre for Social and Human Sciences of the CSIC from 2007 to 2012. His research focuses on the history of al-Andalus and the political implications of historical memory. His last book, The Court of the Caliphate of al-Andalus. Four Years in Umayyad Cordoba, has been published by Edinburgh University Press in 2023.

This lecture is given in conjunction with ISAW's exhibition Madinat al-Zahra: The Radiant Capital of Islamic Spain. This exhibition and its accompanying catalogue were made possible by generous support from the Achelis and Bodman Foundation, the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, and the Leon Levy Foundation. Additional funding provided by Liz and Iris Fernandez Zimick.

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