Matilde Fernández Montes

Matilde Fernández Montes
Centro de Ciencias Humanas y Sociales, CSIC
c/ Albasanz 26-28 (despacho 1F-10)
28037 Madrid, España
[email protected]
She graduated in Geography and History, spezializing in Prehistory and Ethnology, from
the Complutense University of Madrid in 1978. She obtained her PhD in the same field in
1987. From 1995 she Works in the CSIC, the first three years with a contract to work in
the “Diccionario Etnológico de las Comunidades Autónomas” [Ethnological Dictionary of
the Autonomous Communities], after what she obtained a postdoctoral fellowship, then in
1990 her position as a tenure scientist, and finally, in 2007 was promoted to scientist
researcher.
Her professional work started with the study of crafts, focusing on popular pottery from
Cuenca, Soria and Andalusia. Her choice for her PhD dissertation titled Cultura
Tradicional en la Comarca de Buitrago [Traditional Culture in the area of Buitrago] was in
fact a change from her previous work, working on an ethnological study with a section
dedicated to Ethnohistory. This last topic will become the main field of interest in her future
works on historical documents about the Modern Age, and focusing on the analysis of the
cult to Saint Isidro (The Saint Patron of Madrid). She also worked on archeological data of
the Dama de Elche, and other historical documents beyond Spain, such as the Old
Testament.
She has recently carried out research on Vallecas neighborhood in Madrid (1999-2006),
coordinating three monographs on the subject, analyzing its History, Culture and
Anthropology. From 2007 she became a member of the INTER Group at the CSIC,
currently part of the research line “Socio-Demographic Changes in a Global World” of the
CCHS. Within this framework she has worked together with Waltraud Müllauer-Seichter in
the book titled La integración escolar a debate [A Debate on School Integration] (2009).
She is a member of the research team who carries out the project: Estrategias
de participación y prevención de racismo en las escuelas II (FFI2009-08762)
[Participation Strategies and racism Prevention in Schools II], where she is
working on the análisis of identity mechanisms and integration and exclusión in
schools, combining open interviews with on-line fieldwork. In 2011 she will coordinate a Seminar on the issue of Intercultural identity, together with
Mariacaterina La Barbera.