About twenty students from the University of Redlands (California, U.S.) participated in a course on religious diversity in Córdoba led by Professor Bárbara Ruiz Bejarano, director of the Las Fuentes Foundation, as part of a cooperation agreement signed between the Córdoba-based organization and the U.S. university.

Ruiz Bejarano, a specialist in Moorish history, spoke about the situation of the Andalusians following the fall of Al-Andalus and the Christian conquest of the Iberian Peninsula. The director of the Las Fuentes Foundation focused first on the fate of the Mudejar community and then on that of the Moriscos following the forced conversion of the Muslim population to Christianity.

The policies implemented by the new social order toward religious minorities differed markedly in Castile and Aragon, the expert emphasized. As a result of the disparity in strategies between the two kingdoms, different phenomena emerged. On the one hand, there was the development of Aljamiado , the adaptation of religious practices to the new political reality, and on the other, the increasing dialogue between the Andalusians and the Roman Empire , which had a growing presence in the Mediterranean.

The group of students from Redlands is accompanied by three teachers and plans to visit several Spanish cities, including Toledo and Córdoba. They will then travel to Morocco, where they also have scheduled academic meetings with Moroccan professors and various religious communities.

The visit is part of the “Exchange of Civilizations and Cooperation” program, which aims to train undergraduate students in critical studies of cultural and religious diversity throughout history. The training session also sparked a lively debate on the growing use of artificial intelligence in academia, as well as the current challenges of “formulating diversity management policies” in the context of a deeply polarized world .