Cultural History of the Mediterranean

Researcher in charge:  Raúl Estangüi Gómez

Members:

Esperanza Alfonso Carro
Fátima Zahra Amrani Bennouf
Covadonga Baratech Soriano
Patricia Díaz Gallego
Maribel Fierro
Mercedes García-Arenal
Carmen García Bueno
Arturo Guerrero Enterria
Teresa Madrid Álvarez-Piñer
Elvira Martín Contreras
Inmaculada Pérez Martín
Irene Rincón Narros
Adrián Rodríguez Iglesias
Fernando Rodríguez Mediano
Laura Rodríguez Del Pozo
Pablo Roza Candás
Marina Santana Martín
Katarzyna Starczewska
Jan Thiele
Amanda Valdés Sánchez

 

Cultural History of the Mediterranean is a research team at the Institute of Languages and Cultures of the Mediterranean and Near East (CCHS-CSIC). Members of this research group work with primary sources written in Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Arabic and vernacular European languages from a cross-cultural and inter-disciplinary perspective. With occasional incursions into Late Antiquity and Modern times, they are all scholars of the Medieval and Early Modern periods, and work primarily on the various cultures of the Mediterranean, with particular interest in the following areas:

• The religious and intellectual history of Iberia and the Islamic West: law, theology, and political history and thought, with particular attention to biographical and hagiographical literatures.

• The study of religious minorities, with a focus on: a) cross-cultural, and cross-religious phenomena, such as conversion, messianism, religious dissidence, dissimulation, and strategies of group belonging; b) the cultural production of religious minorities, including literature, exegesis, and polemics; c) multilingualism and translation; d) textual transmission and reception.

• History of the book, study and interpretation of the manuscript as a historical and cultural object, relation between the object and the text, practices of reading, using and collecting manuscripts, and book transmission and circulation.

• Historiography, including history of Spanish Early Modern orientalism.

 

Major international research projects:

  • 2019- 2025 EuQu: The European Qur’an. Islamic Scripture in European Culture and Religion 1150-1850 (ERC-2018-SyG / 810141 — EuQu, PI Coord.: Mercedes García-Arenal , with Roberto Tottoli, Jan Loop, and John Tolan). https://euqu.eu/
  • 2018-2022 MIDA: Mediating Islam in the Digital Age (H2020-msca-itn 2018 MSCA-ITN-ETN, PI: Maribel Fierro) https://www.itn-mida.org/
  • 2013-2018 CORPI: Conversion, Overlapping Religiosities, Polemics and Interaction: Early Modern Iberia and Beyond (Advanced Grant, Grant Agreement 323316, PI: Mercedes García-Arenal) http://proyectos.cchs.csic.es/corpi/es/home

Other research projects led by the team members

  • 2022-2024 “Digitalización, descripción y puesta en línea de la colección de manuscritos griegos de El Escorial (DIGITESC)” (TED2021-130178B-I00). Funded by MICINN: 150.000€. PI: Inmaculada Pérez Martín.
  • 2022-2023 “Ideas in Motion: Theological doctrines and writings in the Islamicate World” (Proyecto Intramural Especial). Funded by CSIC: 5.00 €. PI: Jan Thiele.
  • 2021-2024 “Orientalismo en España, ss. XVI-XVIII: de la polémica religiosa a la institucionalización” PID2021-126158NB-I00. 67.881 €. PI: Fernando Rodríguez Mediano.
  • 2021-2023. “Decyphering Qur'anic Dynamics in Spain” TED2021-131758B-I00. 173.995 €. PI: Fernando Rodríguez Mediano.
  • 2021-2025 “Al-Andalus y el Magrib en el Oriente islámico: movilidad, migración y memoria” (PID2020-116680GB-I00). Funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033: 64.130,00€. PI1: Mayte Penelas, PI2: Maribel Fierro.
  • 2020-2023 “El Corán abreviado entre mudéjares y moriscos (PIE)”. Funded by CSIC. PI: Mercedes García-Arenal.
  • 2020-2021 “El mundo según Homero: de Dionisio Periegeta a Eustacio de Tesalónica” Funded by Fundación Logos del BBVA: 63.127€. PI: Inmaculada Pérez Martín.
  • 2019-2022 “Reason and Belief: Theological Debates in the Medieval and Early Modern Islamic West” (PGC2018-099268-A-I00). Funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033/FEDER: 36.300€. PI: Jan Thiele.
  • 2018-2020 “Orientalismo y verdad: la influencia de la erudición oriental en el desarrollo del pensamiento crítico en la España Moderna” (FFI2017-86538-P). Funded by MINECO. PI: Mercedes García-Arenal. PI 2: Fernando Rodríguez Mediano.
  • 2017-2020 Contextos locales y dinámicas globales: al-Andalus y el Magreb en el Oriente islámico (AMOI), FFI2016-78878-R AEI/FEDER, UE. 48.000€. PI: Maribel Fierro. PI 2: Mayte Penelas.
  • 2014-2019 “Practicing knowledge in Islamic societies and their neighbours”. Funded by the Humboldt Foundation (Anneliese Maier Research Award 2014): 250.000€. PI: Maribel Fierro.

Participation of the team members in other research projects

  • 2022-2023 “Cinema e Idade Média”. Funded by Cinemateca Portuguesa; Universidade Nova de Lisboa: IEM – Instituto de Estudos Medievais – NOVA FCSH (UIDB/00749/2020), IHC – Instituto de História Contemporânea - NOVA FCSH (UIDB/04209/2020), IFILNOVA – Instituto de Filosofia – NOVA FCSH (UIDB/00183/2020), CESEM – Centro de Estudos de Sociologia e Estética Musical – NOVA FCSH (UIDB/00693/2020), IELT – Instituto de Estudos de Literatura e Tradição – NOVA FCSH (UIDB/00657/2020); Universidade de Évora: CIDEHUS– Centro Interdisciplinar de História, Culturas e Sociedades – Universidade de Évora (UIDB/00057/2020): 27.500€. PI Alicia Miguélez (IEM-NOVA Lisboa). Member of the Project: Elsa Cardoso.
  • 2021-2028 The Evolution of Islamic Societies (c.600-1600 CE): Algorithmic Analysis into Social History. PI: Maxim Romanov. Emmy Noether Programme, Freie Universität Berlin. Mercator Fellow: Maribel Fierro.
  • 2021-2024: “Manuscritos bizantinos iluminados en España: Obra, contexto y materialidad” (PID2020-120067GB-I00). PI: Manuel Castiñeiras. Member of the Project: Inmaculada Pérez Martín.
  • 2020-2025 Making a martyr in early medieval Iberia (589-1080). PI Kati Ihnat. VIDI grant of the NWO. Member of the Advisory Board: Maribel Fierro.
  • 2020-2023 “LEGARAD III: Legado de Sefarad. La producción material e intelectual del judaísmo sefardí bajomedieval, III (PID 2019-104219GB-100). Funded by MINECO. 33.880€. PI Arturo Prats Oliván (UCM). Members of the Project: Esperanza Alfonso and Elvira Martín-Contreras.
  • 2020-2023: “El Autor bizantino (III): Metafrasis, reescritura y recepción” (PID2019-105102GB-I00). PI: Juan Signes Codoñer. Member of the Project: Inmaculada Pérez Martín.
  • 2016-2019: “LEGARAD II: Legado de Sefarad. La producción material e intelectual del judaísmo sefardí bajomedieval, II” (FFI2015-63700-P). Funded by Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad: 53.361€. PI: Javier del Barco (UCM). Members of the project: Esperanza Alfonso and Elvira Martín-Contreras.

Related webs:

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Dept. of Jewish and Islamic Studies
Dept. of Graeco-Latin Studies

Instituto de Lenguas y Culturas del Mediterráneo y Oriente Próximo (ILC)

Research Groups