Let us introduce you to your host for our voyage ‘Moor than a myth’ – Dr Fernando Cervantes.
A historian at heart, Fernando’s passion centers on the history of early modern Europe, with a special interest in the intellectual, cultural, and religious history of Spain and Spanish America. His accolades include the John Coffin Memorial Lecturer in the History of Ideas at the University of London in 2005 and fellowships at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, the Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, UCLA, and the Liguria Study Centre for the Arts and the Humanities, Bogliasco, Italy. In the Spring quarter of 2009, he held the Tipton Distinguished Visiting Chair at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Born in Mexico City, Fernando moved with his family, to the United Kingdom in 1972, where he graduated with a degree in history at Oxford University, before completing his PHD at Cambridge University. In 1990 Fernando began his teaching career at the venerated Bristol University, where he continues to teach European and Latin American History.
Fernando’s in-depth knowledge and storytelling prowess has proffered a second career as a published author in the intellectual, cultural and religious history of early modern Europe and Spanish America. His most recent book, Conquistadores: A New History, has been translated into eight languages and offers an enlightening, and often revisionist viewpoint of the conquistadors and the world from which they emerged. This accompanies long term projects including a study of the literary imagination of early modern Europe that seeks to place the works of Montaigne, Cervantes (the Don Quixote Cervantes that is) and Shakespeare, in the wider context of early modern humanism. He is currently working on a History of Spain and will be well into the writing by the time of our voyage.
Fernando’s numerous fellowships, published works and profound knowledge of Spain and its role in worldwide exploration and colonial expansion, fuel his passion for our voyage theme: the Moors and La Reconquista. His understanding of this fascinating period in history and its impact on Northern Africa and the Iberian Peninsula, enlightens us throughout our voyage as we follow the story of these captivating peoples, their beliefs, triumphs and tragedies, and the resulting clash of cultures which created modern-day Spain.