The Muslim conquests of North Africa in the 7th century transformed the everyday lives of communities - the development of a distinctly ‘Islamic cultural package’ was marked by the spread of new aesthetics, public and private architecture and Muslim dietary practices.
According to Corisande Fenwick:
Through new excavations and scientific analysis using state-of the-art methods, legacy datasets and written sources, this ambitious project will explore the underlying reasons for the spread of Islamic way of life in North Africa between ca. 600-1000 CE and will aim to rewrite the history of Muslim rule and the Islamisation of daily life from the perspective of the communities living through this pivotal period. I’m really excited to hold this project at the Institute of Archaeology - the IoA is the place for Islamic archaeology!"
The Institute of Archaeology undertakes world-leading research on social and cultural archaeological studies situated at the cutting edge of contemporary social science, fostering partnerships with researchers in associated disciplines both within UCL and beyond.
ERC Starting Grants are awarded to talented early career researchers who show potential to be research leaders. Corisande is author of the recently-published volume on Early Islamic North Africa (Bloomsbury, 2020). She co-directs excavations at Bulla Regia, Tunisia and Volubilis, Morocco and is co-editor of The Aghlabids and their Neighbours (2017) and the Oxford Handbook of Islamic Archaeology (2018). She is Co-ordinator of the Institute’s Islamic Archaeology Research Network which encourages collaboration, promotes research and generates new agendas amongst researchers working on the Islamic world.
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