María Elena Díez Jorge

Personal Details
Teaching
Publications of interest

(Santa Cruz de Tenerife, 1971)

Twenty eight years of professional experience, since 1994.

Professor at the Department of History of Art

Department of History of Art
The Peace and Conflicts Institute
University of Granada
E-mail:
mdiez@ugr.es

After studying History and Geography (specializing in History of Art) at the University of Granada (Spain) and the Universitá degli Studi di Pisa (Italy), she graduated from the University of Granada where she was awarded the Special Degree Prize for the best student record. She was the number one in her class. She received a Grant from the Ministry of Education and Science for the Training of Research Teaching Staff from 1995-1998 and obtained her doctorate from the University of Granada in 1998 with a thesis entitled La conflictividad en el arte mudéjar (Controversy and conflicts in Mudejar Art), for which she won the Special Doctorate Prize. She is currently a Professor at the Department of History of Art .

She has two main lines of research. Firstly, Peace Research, which she does at Institute and Peace and Conflict of the University of Granada, of which she is a member. This has been the subject of some of her most important pieces of research and her publications on multiculturalism in art and in particular within the historical framework of Mudejar Art. This research led to the publication of various books such as El Palacio islámico de la Alhambra. Propuestas para una lectura multicultural , (The Islamic Palace of the Alhambra. Proposals for a Multicultural Interpretation) published by the University of Granada, the first two editions of which sold out. Another important book that emerged from this research was El arte mudéjar. Expresión estética de una convivencia , (Mudejar Art. The Aesthetic Expression of a Coexistence between Different Cultures) jointly published by the University of Granada and the Institute of Teruel Studies. In order to bring her research to a wider audience she published with the University of Granada and the Regional Government of Andalusia La Alhambra y el Generalife. Guía histórico-artística (The Alhambra and the Generalife. A guide to their history and artwork), which was intended as a guide-book with a traditional purpose as a means of disseminating knowledge. This book was later translated into English. In her effort to combine studies of al- Andalus to the Christian kingdoms it means the edition of the book La casa medieval en la península ibérica (2015) (The Medieval House in the Iberian Peninsula) and De puertas para adentro. La casa en los siglos XV y XVI (2019) (Behind Closed Doors. The House in the 15th and 16 th Centuries). She is currently directing a project with the Alhambra School on the architectural ceramics of the Alhambra and whose first phase (2016-2018) focuses on gathering all the documentation that is about it and systematizing it and now is he second phase (2018-2021).

She has combined research in this field with her other main line of research, Women's History, in which she has participated in a variety of R&D projects. She has given lectures and published various articles on this subject, focussing in particular on women's spaces, a question covered in her book Mujeres y arquitectura: cristianas y mudéjares en la construcción (Women and Architecture: Christians and Mudejars in Construction) (2011). Another part of this research is the postgraduate course City, Architecture and Gender which she has taught since 2002 to 2016 as part of the official Master's Degree course organized by the History of Art Department, and the course Gender and Peace , which she has been teaching since 2001 with the Peace and Conflicts Institute of the University of Granada. Within this line of research she has coordinated the book Las mujeres y la ciudad de Granada en el siglo XVI (Women and the city of Granada in the 16 th Century), published by Granada City Council, the book Las mujeres y la paz: génesis y evolución de conceptualizaciones, símbolos y prácticas, (Women and Peace: Genesis and Evolution of Conceptualizations, Symbols and Practices), which she co-wrote and which was published by the Institute of Women (part of the Ministry of Employment and Social Affairs), and the co-edition of the book Género y Paz (Gender and Peace) (2010) .She is currently directing a project about Women and Peace (2019-2022) with ERDF (European Regional Development Fund). She has co-directed various seminars on the subject such as Women and the city of Granada in the 16 th Century (2000); Women painters from the Baroque period (2007); International Seminar on Women and Peace. Theory and practices of a Peace Culture (2008). She was directing an Excellence Project on Architecture fron a Gender Perspective (results are published in the book Arquitectura y mujeres en la historia (2015) (Architecture and Women in History). She has finished the management of the project of the National Plan of Research about Domestic Architecture in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries (2014-2018) and now she is currently the management Dressing the House: Spaces, Objects and Emotions in the Fifteeenth and Sixteenth Centuries (2019-2022) . With a view to passing on the knowlede and results to a wider audience she has led and advised on various routes and itineraries for women such as Antequera con nombre de mujeres: itinerarios por la ciudad (Antequera with women's names: itineraries around the city) (2013) and Ruta de mujeres zubienses en la historia (Route about Women from La Zubia in History) (2015) as well as the specialised visits entitled Mujeres en el patrimonio de la Universidad (Women in the University's Historic Buildings) (2016).

She has also been involved in a wide range of heritage projects at a national and European level, both in the drafting of inventories and in the coordination and dissemination of information on heritage. An example of this work was the book Construyendo Universidad (Constructing a University) which she coordinated and which was aimed at disseminating the heritage of the University of Granada. Other interesting heritage-related work included her time as Director of the Heritage at the University of Granada from 2001 to 2003, and her spell as Vice-Rector for Heritage, Infrastructure and Equipment at the same university from 2004 to early 2008. Since 2008-2017 she has co-directed the Doctoral Programme on Heritage Conservation and Management (Havana, Cuba); and she was coordinating a postgraduate course in Cartagena de Indias (Colombia) (2012-2019).

She has coordinated several congress, courses and seminars such as Islamic Palatine Architecture: Women and the city of Granada in the sixteenth century (2000); The Nasrid Palace of Comares (2002); La Madraza: past, present and future (2006); Congress The medina in the process of saturation (2006); Baroque painters (2007); International Congress Women and Peace (2008); Lessons from Art and Architecture (2009); Peaceful relations between genders (2010); Creating and constructing peace from art and architecture (2011), International Congress Domestic Space in the Medieval Iberian Peninsula (2013); Internacional Congress Debates on Imperfect Peace (2016); Work Shop Vestir la casa: objetos y emociones en el hogar andalusí y morisco (2016); International Congress De puertas para adentro. Vida y distribución de espacios en la arquitectura doméstica, siglos XV-XVI (2017).

She has given lectures in Spain and at an international level (USA, United Kingdom, France, Italy, Belgium, Columbia, Mexico, Morocco, Argentina, Algeria) and has taught classes at foreign universities (University of Toluca -Mexico-, University of Nantes -France-, Tres de Febrero National University, Buenos Aires -Argentina-, Universidad degli Studi di Pisa -Italia-, Universidad de La Habana -Cuba-, Universidad Cartagena de Indias -Colombia-). She has been the curator of various exhibitions such as the itinerant exhibition “Artists for Peace” (2000); the exhibition “17 th Century Granada. Art and Culture in the times of Alonso Cano” (2002) and De puertas para adentro. Vida y distribución de espacios en la arquitectura doméstica, siglos XV-XVI (Málaga, 2017), Toledo (2018).

She has directed twelve doctoral theses on various topics that mainly cover architecture and women, as well as domestic and religious architecture in the late Middle Ages and early Middle Ages, as well as theses related to gender and peace. She has tutored various FPU scholarships and collaboration and directed more than fifty of dissertations and Works End of Master (TFM) and more than twenty Works of End of Degree (TFG).

She is a member of a number of committees and advisory bodies such as the the Scientific Committee at the Centre of Mudejar Studies run by the Provincial Council of Teruel, a member of the International Advisory Council of the Peace History Society (USA) and a member of the Governing Board of the Centre for Historical Studies of Granada and its Kingdom. She was member of Advisory Council of the Schools Observatory Body for Andalusia (2007-2013) and she had been the President of the Andalusian Real Estate Commission (2011-2013). She is a permanent member of the Royal Academy of Noble Arts of Antequera. He is currently a member of the Associated Unit of the CSIC, Arab and Islamic Cultural Heritage (2016-20203).

She has also received prizes for her research work (Premio Puerta Andalucía, 2006) and for her work at the Vice-Rectorate for Heritage, Infrastructure and Equipment of the University of Granada (Premio Albayzín, 2006).

VIDEO LIBRARY

 

Architecture and Women in History

Christian Houses in Alhambra

Researchers in the Alhambra

Medersa of Granada

Exhibition

Medersa of Granada

 

© 2011 María Elena Díez Jorge