Brian Catlos recieved the 2023 ASCEND award, which recognizes faculty, staff, and students for their efforts to promote diversity and inclusion. Catlos was selected as Faculty Awardee for his work on Mediterranean Studies and with the CU Mediterranean Studies Group (since 2011) and the Mediterranean Seminar, both of which he founded and directs (the latter with Sharon Kinoshita of UCSC). The CU Mediterranean Studies group is an interdisciplinary collaborative group which brings speakers to campus, organizes conferences, workshops and events, and supports faculty and graduate students through works-in-progress workshops, as well as conducting outreach with the Front Range community. As practiced by the Group, Mediterranean Studies works to move beyond Eurocentric narratives relating to the origin and emergence of the Modern West (broadly defined as the Abrahamic cultural sphere) and to integrate the histories of Europe, Africa and West Asia, and Christian, Muslim and Jewish societies and cultures. This approach is reflected in his recent textbook The Sea in the Middle: The Mediterranean World, 650-1650.