Key research themes
1. How did 20th-century Spain navigate national identity, political turmoil, and societal transformation?
This theme investigates Spain’s shifting conceptions of national identity amid political upheavals across the Restoration, Civil War, Francoist dictatorship, and the early democracy transition. Key research emphasizes intellectual movements around regeneration and nationalism, state-driven propaganda and modernization efforts under Franco, struggles with cultural memory and historical violence, and the role of education and social reform in shaping collective identity and societal cohesion.
2. What role did ideological networks and cultural expressions play in shaping Spain’s political and social landscape during and after the Franco regime?
This theme explores the persistence and transformation of far-right neofascist networks in post-war Madrid, the politicization and ritualization of memory surrounding the Francoist monument Valle de los Caídos, and cultural contestations of Spain’s past through art, literature, and education. It addresses how ideological communities operated transnationally, how symbolic architectures perpetuated state violence narratives, and how cultural productions negotiated national trauma and identity.
3. How have literary and visual cultural productions represented and grappled with 20th-century Spanish social realities and historical memory?
This theme examines the role of literature, comic books, and humanities education in representing Spain’s complex 20th-century historical conflicts and social dynamics. It includes the use of autobiographical graphic narratives to explore civil war and dictatorship experiences, feminist re-readings of motherhood under institutionalized patriarchy in literature, and the essential interplay between humanities education, liberal democracy, and resistance to authoritarianism during politically tumultuous periods.