Born in Montréal in 1966, Brian Catlos juggled university and travel over five continents for seventeen years, working - among other things - as a motorbike courier in London, a hotel and coffee-shop runner in Amsterdam, a tree-planter in Northern Canada and a bicycle and walking tour guide in Spain. He worked and studied in Canada, Syria, Israel, and Ecuador all the while completing a PhD in Medieval Studies at the University of Toronto, where he won several awards. After many years living in Spain, Brian took a position as a professor of History at the University of California at Santa Cruz, and now he and his family divide their time between Barcelona and that city. In addition to his numerous academic articles, he has written The Victors and the Vanquished: Christians and Muslims of Catalonia and Aragon, 1050--1300 (Cambridge: 2004), an award-winning book which will soon be published in Spanish translation. While continuing to research Christian-Muslim-Jewish relations in the medieval Mediterranean, he regularly gives papers and presentations in North America and Europe and is also involved in documentary film-making. You can find out more about Brian's teaching and research at http://humanities.ucsc.edu/bcatlos.