Shirin A. Khanmohamadi is Professor of Comparative Literature at San Francisco State University, where she specializes in comparative medieval literatures, premodern travel and ethnographic writing, and literary and cultural contact between the medieval European and Islamic worlds. She is the author of In Light of Another’s Word: European Ethnography in the Middle Ages (University of Pennsylvania Press Middle Ages Series, 2014), which examines the dialogic and inter-subjective form of Europe’s earliest ethnographic writing.
Professor Khanmohamadi will be speaking about her current book project, Splendorous Saracens: Appropriating Islamicate Prestige in Medieval European Literature, which aims to rethink the role of Muslims in medieval European narratives, beyond the default "crusading” frame into which they are usually cast, arguing instead for Europe’s emulation and appropriation of Islamicate imperial prestige in its earliest imperial expression. Her research is supported by an NEH Awards for Faculty grant in 2022-2023.