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Center for Iberian Historical Studies

The Saint Louis University Center for Iberian Historical Studies (CIHS) promotes advanced research and public dialogue on topics related to Spain, Portugal and Iberian connections across the world.

As a transdisciplinary and collaborative platform, the CIHS supports both scholarly and public engagement. It fosters discussions on historical methodologies, critical theory, and the use of archival, library and material collections. Through this work, the center empowers scholars and students to deepen their understanding of the diverse cultures and environments shaped by Iberian histories across the globe.

Conceived as a bridge between SLU campuses in St. Louis and Madrid, the CIHS serves as a platform for collaboration with partners interested in the regional and global histories of Iberian worlds. By leveraging Saint Louis University’s dual-campus structure, its network of Iberian-focused faculty and resources such as the Teófilo Ruiz Library, the CIHS advances original research in Iberian historical studies both within the university and beyond.

The CIHS welcomes initiatives covering Iberian studies from late antiquity to the present. It places particular emphasis on the “First Iberian Globalization” (from the medieval period through the 1800s), encouraging research on local, colonial, transregional, and global histories of Iberian interactions and exchanges.

In collaboration with the SLU Department of History and as one of the distinctive research centers within the College of Arts and Sciences’ Collaborative for Humanistic Inquiry, the CIHS is committed to supporting faculty, graduate and undergraduate research at both SLU and SLU–Madrid. 

Madrid Research Workshop

In 2025, the Center for Iberian Historical Studies launched its Madrid Seminar Workshop. In June 2026, CIHS, in partnership with the Center for Spain in America (CSA), hosted the 2026 Madrid Research Workshop in Archives, Libraries and Art Collections in Madrid, Spain.

Meet the 2026 CIHS/CSA Fellows

News and Events

CIHS Announces New Joint Publishing Venture with CEEH, CSA

The Center for Iberian Historical Studies (CIHS) is delighted to announce a new joint publishing venture with the Centro de Estudios Europa Hispánica (CEEH) and Center for Spain in America (CSA). This collaboration seeks to promote innovative scholarship on the Iberian worlds through the publication of cutting-edge research in both English and Spanish, while expanding the international reach of works that bridge disciplines, geographies, and scholarly traditions.

We are pleased that this new publishing venture begins with a new Spanish edition and English translation of José Ramón Marcaida’s (CSIC, Madrid) "Art and Science in Baroque Spain: Natural History, Collecting, and Visual Culture."

We look forward to sharing additional initiatives in the future.

CIHS Affiliates and Alumni News

CIHS congratulates David M. Olsen, a recent Saint Louis University graduate and CIHS affiliate, on a series of exciting international invitations. At the Society for the Study of Crusades and the Latin East in Porto, Portugal (July 29–Aug. 3), Olsen presented his invited paper, “The Almohad Economy during the Crusade Period and the Commercial Revolution.” He will continue this conversation this fall as an invited speaker at the University of Granada.

Olsen has also been invited to present at the International Symposium on “The Almoravid and Almohad Empires” at the Academy of the Kingdom of Morocco (Sept. 30–Oct. 2, 2026). Congratulations on these well-deserved recognitions!

Upcoming Events

  • Sept. 10, 2026: CIHS Roundtable, "Conversations Across Iberian Worlds: Language, Knowledge, and New Histories of Empire," 11:30 a.m. in room 340 of Cook Hall. Join us for a discussion with four esteemed scholars on their latest monographs: Jorge Cañizares-Esguerra (Texas-Austin) and Adrian Masters (Universität Trier) "The Radical Spanish Empire," Valeria López Fadul (Wesleyan University) "The Cradle of Words," and Andrew Laird (Brown University) "Aztec Latin." Lunch following.
Past Events

The CIHS builds on the SLU Department of History's decade-long record of convening events related to Iberian studies between SLU's campuses in St. Louis and Madrid.

  • 2026 Madrid Research Workshop, SLU Madrid campus, June 22-26.
  • Feb. 4-5, 2026, Pedro Cardim (Universidade Nova de Lisboa) lead a master class "The Iberian Peninsula and the World 1400s-1700s" and presented his research at a public lecture "Debating the Enslavement of Black Africans and of Indigenous Americans (15th-17th c.).
  • Sept. 11, 2025, Professors Freddy Dominguez (University of Arkansas) and Mary Beth Long (University of Arkansas) presented "Little Women and Political Sanctity in Early Modern Spain" (Dominguez) and "The Reproductive Community-Building of Margaret Clitherow" (Long).
  • Sept. 16, 2025, Ana Sánchez Casado shared her research "Devotion and Oaths: The Immaculate Conception in Seventeenth-Century Naples," at noon Tuesday, Sept. 16, in room 142 of Adorjan Hall.
  • March 10-14, 2025, Madrid Research Workshop, SLU Madrid campus. An intensive course dedicated to collaborative and individual methods for historical research in medieval and early modern Iberian studies. Keynote lecture by Richard Kagan (Johns Hopkins), "Crafting a Classic: Henry C. Lea's History of the Inquisition of Spain."
  • Nov. 22, 2024, Kirsten Schultz (Seton Hall University) delivered the CIHS Annual Lecture, "Wealth, Luxury, and the Tensions of Empire: Brazil and Portugal in the Eighteenth Century."
  • Nov. 6, 2024, Christina Lee (Princeton University) lunch discussion "On the Pacific Turn in Iberian and Early Global Studies," followed by Lee's lecture, cosponsored with the Center for Research on Global Catholicism, "Devotions in the Early Modern Spanish Pacific. Catholicism and Indigenous Idolatry."
  • Oct. 17, 2024, Pedro Schacht (The Ohio State University) discussed his project "Blackening the Archive: Race and the Legacies of Colonialism in Nineteenth Century Portuguese Literature and in Contemporary Public Debates on the Political Uses of History."
  • Oct. 3-5, 2024, The CIHS co-sponsored the Fifth Quadrennial Symposium on Crusade Studies at SLU-Madrid. The symposium allows scholars to present research and engage in historical discussion to promote serious scholarly investigation into all topics and disciplines associated with crusading and the Latin East.
  • Sept. 16, 2024, Francesca Bellino (Harvard-Università degli Studi di Napoli) will give a lecture entitled "Popular Literature on the Battles of the Prophet Muhammad and his Companions in Aljamiado Manuscripts,"
  • April 26, 2024, Madrid: CIHS Inaugural Event (SLU-Madrid). Paul Freedman, Ph.D., Chester D. Tripp Professor of History, Yale University), "Studying the Middle Ages in Enlightenment Catalonia."
  • April 26-27, 2024, St. Louis: "Mediterranean Ecologies," The Mediterranean Seminar Spring Workshop, a co-sponsored initiative with the TGI Spatial Humanities Working Group.
  • April 5, 2024, St. Louis: Breakfast Discussion with Cécile Fromont (Yale University), "Ibero-African Aesthetics and Tastes in the Making and Unmaking of Renaissance Empires."
  • March 13, 2024, Newberry Library, Chicago: "New Approaches for Understanding the Rhizome in Iberian Studies." Cosponosored with the Newberry Library Center for Renaissance Studies.
  • March 5, 2024, online: "Thinking Race Through at the ARSI." A Hands-On Workshop for Research in Jesuit Archives.
    Dec. 1, 2023, St. Louis: CIHS Inaugural Event. Teofilo Ruiz, Ph.D., UCLA Distinguished Professor and recipient of the National Humanities Medal. “Serendipity: or How I Became a Historian of Spain."
  • The Republic of Letters and the Formation of Transoceanic Empires across Renaissance Iberian Worlds (Dec. 3-4, 2021, Madrid)
    San Fernando and His Age (1217-1252) (Oct. 6-7, 2017, Madrid).
  • The Tasks of the Translator: Developing a Sociocultural Framework for the Study of Translation across the Early Modern World” (March 20-21, 2017, St. Louis)
  • Iberian Legitimacies (SLU-CMRS Annual Conference, Summer 2016)
  • Religious Alterity and Political Power in Medieval Polities (April 10-11, 2015, Madrid)
  • Medieval Association of the Midwest 30th Annual Conference (Jan. 23-25, 2015, Madrid)
  • Alfonso VIII and Eleanor of Castile (SLU-CMRS Annual Conference, Summer 2014)
  • The Friars and their Influence in Medieval Spain, (April 12-13, 2013, Madrid).

Leadership Team

Executive Board

Advisory Board

  • Diane Bodart (Columbia University)
  • Harald Braun (University of Liverpool)
  • Thomas Barton (University of San Diego)
  • Thomas Burman (University of Notre Dame)
  • Pedro Cardim (Universidade Nova de Lisboa)
  • Ana María Echevarría Arsuaga (Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia)
  • Ana Rodríguez López (CSIC, CCHS-Madrid, Instituto de Historia)
  • Giuseppe Marcocci (University of Oxford)
  • Lisa Voigt (Yale University)
  • Paola Volpini (Università di Parma)

Faculty and Alumni Affiliates: St. Louis and Madrid 

Graduate Student Affiliates

  • Brent Gordon
  • Dierdre Klena
  • Courtney Knight
  • Nathan Van Aken

If you are interested in joining our list of affiliates as Faculty Affiliates: St. Louis and Madrid, Scholarly Affiliates (outside SLU), Alumni Affiliates, or Student Affiliates, please submit your application materials via Google Forms.

Executive Sponsors

Resources and Partners

The CIHS houses a library for researchers (faculty, advanced undergraduates and graduate students, and independent researchers). The Teofilo Ruiz Library was created thanks to a generous gift from friend and colleague Professor Teo Ruiz. The collection's core is based on the books Professor Ruiz gathered and used during his career. The library is on the St. Louis campus and is accessible by appointment on the second floor of Adorjan Hall.