New Iberianist History Series Co-edited by UNM Professor

February 20, 2013

Michael A. Ryan, affiliated faculty of the Latin American & Iberian Institute and Associate Professor of History, has recently been selected as a series editor for Penn State Press' upcoming New History Series: Iberian Encounter and Exchange, 475-1755. Specialists in early modern Latin American, African, and/or Asian history whose project has significant and established connections with the Iberian Peninsula should especially consider submitting a prospectus for consideration to Professor Ryan (ryan6@unm.edu) or his co-editor of the series, Erin Rowe of Johns Hopkins University (erowe1@jhu.edu).

The Iberian Peninsula has historically been an area of the world that fostered encounters and exchanges among peoples from different societies. For centuries, Iberia acted as a nexus for the circulation of ideas, people, objects and technology around the pre-modern western Mediterranean, Atlantic, and eventually the Pacific. Iberian Encounter and Exchange, 475-1755 combines a broad thematic scope with the territorial limits of the Iberian Peninsula and its global contacts. In doing so, works in this series will juxtapose previously disparate areas of study and challenge scholars to rethink the role of encounter and exchange in the formation of the modern world.

Professor Ryan's primary research and teaching foci at the University of New Mexico include the intersection of magic, science, and religion in the premodern world; apocalyptic expectations and apprehensions in premodern society; medieval relations between Christians, Muslims, and Jews; and gender and sexuality. Ryan has previously participated in the National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institute for College and University Teachers in Barcelona on "Cultural Hybridities: Christians, Muslims, and Jews in the Medieval Mediterranean" and has been a recipient of the H.P. Krause Fellowship in Early Books and Manuscripts to conduct research at Yale University's Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Most recently, Ryan received a Research Allocations Committee Grant to conduct two and a half months of research at the Archivio di Strato di Venezia and the Biblioteca Marciana for his new project on magical-themed fraud and charlatanry in fourteenth and fifteenth century Venice.