Charles K. Hirschkind

Focusing on southern Spain in the context of that nation’s ongoing integration into the European Union, this project explores some of the ways Europe’s Islamic past inhabits its present. The following question frames the study: how do the historical sensibilities, attitudes, and practices that ambivalently link the Spanish nation to its Muslim past open up a unique set of present possibilities for conceptualizing and addressing the “Muslim problem” in Europe today? Although the forms of history and memory are relegated to the margins of Spanish historical consciousness, they continue to inform social and political practices of both Muslims and non-Muslims in southern Spain, conditioning and enabling a variety of contemporary political projects in the region.