National Research Award Ramón Menéndez Pidal, in the area of Humanities
A historian of religion and culture, her field of work, as she defines it, focuses on “the relations between Muslims, Jews and Christians in the Iberian Peninsula in medieval times and in the first modern centuries”.
Works built around a series of concerns, such as the history of religious minorities or Jews in North Africa, which have meant a change in the way we understand North African history, identity and European culture. “My work can make us reflect on problems that are very pressing in Europe now,” says García-Arenal, who gives two examples: “problems of assimilation and exclusion”.
Mercedes García-Arenal has dedicated a large part of her professional career to the creation of multidisciplinary research teams, supported by the award of two important projects funded by the European Research Council (ERC). She is currently a Research Professor at the CSIC, where she has developed her entire career, with stays interspersed at the University of London and the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, USA.