Presentation of the dossier Relics: the political and identity dimensions of the sacred in the contemporary age
Author Biographies
Rafael Serrano García
, Universidad de Valladolid
Honorary collaborating professor of the HMCAPCAP department (area of contemporary history) of the University of Valladolid. His research has focused mainly on the Spanish 19th century, dealing with issues such as culture, the liberal revolutionary cycle (with particular attention to the Revolution of 1868), social mobilization, elitist sociability or the struggle for religious freedom, which has resulted in 20 books that he has authored or edited. He has been a visiting professor at the École de Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris and at the European University Institute in Florence. He has participated in different research projects of the Ministry of Education and the Junta de Castilla y León and has been principal investigator in two of them. His research is currently focused on the Castilian rural world at the time of the II Republic.
César Rina Simón
, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia
Professor of the Department of Contemporary History of the UNED, international doctorate from the University of Navarra -with a thesis that won two national research awards: Enrique Fuentes Quintana and second prize Miguel Artola- and member of the research groups “Use of the Past” of the Universidade de Lisboa and “Political History” of the Instituto de História Contemporânea. He has specialized in the cultural mechanisms of legitimization of power during the Franco dictatorship, focusing on religiosity and popular culture. On these topics he has published the books “Los imaginarios franquistas y la religiosidad popular” (Arturo Barea Award, 2015) and “El mito de la tierra de María Santísima” (2020) and has edited “El franquismo en caleidoscopio” (2020) and “El franquismo se fue de fiesta” (2022).
