Daniel Hershenzon

Daniel Hershenzon is an Associate Professor of History at the University of Connecticut's College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. His research focuses on early modern Spain, the Mediterranean, and the interconnected histories of slavery, religion, and material culture. He holds positions in the Department of History and is affiliated with the University's Humanities Institute.

His first major work, *The Captive Sea: Slavery, Communication, and Commerce in Early Modern Spain and the Mediterranean* (2018), examines the entangled histories of Spain, Morocco, and Ottoman Algiers through piracy, captivity, and redemption. This book has received multiple awards including the Best First Book Prize from the Association for Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies (2019) and the Sharon Harris Book Award (2019).

His current project, *Captive Objects*, explores the circulation of religious artifacts (e.g., Qurans, crosses) across the Mediterranean through piracy and enslavement. This research was supported by fellowships at Princeton University (2019-2020) and the ACLS (2020-2021).

His research interests include:

• Early modern Mediterranean connectivity
• Slavery and captivity economies
• Religious violence and material culture
• Christian-Muslim interactions
• Colonial and postcolonial historiography

Recent articles analyze topics such as frontier narratives, royal slave institutions in Spain, and the political economy of ransom. His work frequently bridges microhistorical analysis with broader transnational frameworks.