Resumen de Conflict, languaje, and social practice in medieval societies: selected essays of Isabel Alfonso, with commentaries
Julio Escalona Monge, Álvaro Carvajal Castro, Cristina Jular Pérez Alfaro
As one of the contributors to this volume once stated, Isabel Alfonso is remarkable for her constant effort to bring to Spanish historians the advances of international English-language scholarship in history — not just medieval — and anthropology, and to make Spanish-speaking medieval research relevant to a wider international audience. As fair as this portrait is, it also brings to the forefront the paradox that most of Isabel’s history writing is published in Spanish and is, therefore, not available to an English speaking readership. This is certainly not the case for some outstanding contributions, such as her 1991 Past & Present article, or her edited volumes Building Legitimacy and The Rural History of Medieval European Societies, but it affects a large number of works that many perceive as the most representative and impactful of her production.
With all this in mind, we decided that, instead of the more common format of a collective volume of essays, we would try and offer Isabel a different kind of Festschrift. It would be a volume of assorted essays by her, translated into English, and yet it would retain the spirit of a collection of pieces by colleagues and friends. We so chose to ask a number of inter national scholars who have met and collaborated with Isabel through the years, and write short commentaries to introduce and discuss her pieces.
A sort of scholarly version of the ‘X reacts to Y’ genre that is popular in the social media. The impressive line-up speaks for itself about the scope and quality of Isabel’s connections.
