Benjamin Wightman

Benjamin studies frontier regions in the medieval Mediterranean world, particularly Spain and North Africa. He is interested in urban political and social history–how cities governed themselves, how the people within them related to one another and constructed in- and out-groups, and how settled people related to the nomads around them. He has a special fondness for the taifa kings of the eleventh century, about whom he wrote his undergraduate thesis at Carleton College in 2021. He graduated with an MA from the University of Pennsylvania in 2024, and has taught English as a foreign language at schools domestically and abroad. Most of his free time is spent outside or with some flavor of fantasy or science fiction media.