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Key research themes
1. How can nineteenth-century Spanish history be integrated into global and connected historical narratives beyond nation-state frameworks?
This theme addresses the marginalization of nineteenth-century Spain in global historiography and proposes methodologies based on connections and entanglements to re-center Spain within wider transnational and imperial contexts. It emphasizes moving beyond territorial and national boundaries to understand Spain’s continued global interactions through its remaining colonies, colonial ambitions, and cross-continental exchanges, thereby reshaping narratives of liberalism and empire in a global age.
Key finding: The dossier synthesizes emerging transnational and Atlantic History approaches that conceptualize the Spanish-Atlantic world as part of a hemispheric system characterized by negotiated authority and dynamic local agency. It... Read more
Key finding: This essay identifies a historiographical gap regarding the political and institutional mechanisms of Spanish colonial rule, highlighting the need for new political histories that go beyond social history. It finds that... Read more
2. How do historiographical narratives and archaeological approaches challenge the conceptual divides between Spanish colonial realms and the Iberian Peninsula?
This theme explores the historiographical and archaeological critiques of insular narratives that isolate the colonies from the Spanish metropole, emphasizing the continuity and interaction between colonial and peninsular realities. It examines how colonial subjects and material culture defy binary colonizer/colonized and local/colonial separations, urging integrated perspectives that recognize shared and divergent colonial experiences across geographies.
Key finding: This article critiques historiographical narratives that separate colonial Americas and the Iberian Peninsula, showing that archaeological evidence from colonial settlements like Ciudad del Nombre de Jesús illuminates... Read more
Key finding: Based on integrated historical and archaeological research of Fuerte San José, this study reveals the complexities and ambiguities of late eighteenth-century Spanish colonial projects in Patagonia. It challenges monolithic... Read more
Key finding: Reiterating the findings of related archaeological work on the Valdés Peninsula, this paper foregrounds the materialities and social dynamics that shaped colonial encounters and settlement persistence in Patagonia,... Read more
3. What roles did astral knowledge and historiography play in shaping colonial narratives and conceptions of the New World in the seventeenth century Spanish Americas?
This research area delves into seventeenth-century colonial intellectual history where historical writing and celestial knowledge—astronomy and astrology—were intertwined epistemologies. It investigates how colonial authors used astral phenomena to authenticate historical chronologies, legitimize political claims, and position the Americas within universal history and Christian cosmology, reflecting broader debates about colonial identity, knowledge production, and imperial historiographies.
Key finding: This article demonstrates that colonial authors Diego Andrés Rocha and Carlos de Sigüenza y Góngora integrated astronomy and astrology with history writing, using celestial events like comets to inform and validate local... Read more
Key finding: Building on similar archival and intellectual material, this co-authored article extends analysis of how astral phenomena underpinned historical narratives, emphasizing the shared epistemic frameworks between senior colonial... Read more