Conveniencia and Physics of Scale: Ethno-Religious Relations in Medieval Spain and the Mediterranean
Associate Professor & Director of Undergraduate Studies of Religious Studies, University of Colorado at Boulder
Research Associate in Humanities, University of California Santa Cruz

The scholarship of communal relations in the multi-religious societies of Medieval Spain and the Mediterranean has long been polarized between those who imagine it in terms of a "clash of civilizations" and others who see it in terms of pacific "convivencia," with each marshalling historical evidence to bolster their claims. In "Conveniencia and Physics of Scale" Brian Catlos proposes a model for understanding  Muslim-Christian-Jewish relations in these pluralistic societies -- a model that accommodates the evidence and perspectives from both camps in order to disentangle the "paradoxes of plurality.