The Nanovic Institute for European Studies, part of the Keough School of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame, has awarded the 2026 Laura Shannon Prize in Contemporary European Studies to Eric Calderwood, professor of comparative and world literature at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, for his book “On Earth or in Poems: The Many Lives of al-Andalus,” published by Harvard University Press.
The Laura Shannon Prize is a preeminent prize within the field of European studies. It is awarded each year to the book that best transcends a focus on any one country, state or people, stimulating new ways of thinking about contemporary Europe as a whole. This year’s award cycle considered books in the humanities published in 2024 and 2025.