I graduated with first class honours in History from the University of Granada (Spain) in 1999, and received a national award for my academic record. I then received a PhD fellowship from the Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte. In October 2003 I completed my PhD thesis The Church and the Barbarians in Fifth-century Spain (409-507), supervised by Dr. José Fernández Ubiña. My postdoctoral research has carried out via several contracts and projects at the universities of Oxford (supervised by Professor Sir F. G. B. Millar, D. Litt., FBA), Harvard and Granada.

My research has primarily been undertaken within the historical ambit of Late Antiquity, and has focussed specifically on the transformations experienced by the Roman World and the Church as a consequence of the arrival of the Barbarians, and on the role of religion in the integration or rejection of persons with different religious beliefs and cultural backgrounds.

This research line began with my doctoral thesis, The Church and the Barbarians in Fifth-century Spain (409-507). In this study, I investigated how the secular power of the Church was constituted, and how the first institutions of state rank of the Germanic people were consolidated at the same time as the Roman dominance in Hispania was being extinguished. I also analysed the process of development of the Church and the Christianization of Spain, as well as the relationship of the Catholic Church to Christian heretical movements (mainly Priscillianism) and Judaism, and the role that the friendly or hostile presence of Barbarians had in these situations. Whilst conducting my postdoctoral research, Multiculturalism, religious coexistence and intolerance in the Mediterranean World of Late Antiquity, carried out at the University of Oxford, several I+D Projects, and the Project at Harvard, “Conflict and Co-existence in Ancient Christianity: Conceptual Strategies and Rhetoric Debate”, I continued my investigations into religious and cultural diversity in Late Antiquity, extending my studies to the Mediterranean World as a whole. The most interesting part of this work was to engage in historical reflection on the circumstances that make religious and cultural coexistence, tolerance and integration possible and discovering how religious coexistence was confronted by the State, the intellectuals, the religious leaders and common people, as well as how this was reflected in wider society. With regard to the two projects in which I am currently involved, the I+D, “The Church as a System in Late Antiquity”, and the Project for Young Researchers at the University of Granada, “Religious, social and cultural freedom, co-existence and integration: Christian proposals from Late Antiquity”, my research is focussed on the relationship between Christians and Barbarians in the West and on the role of Christian ideals of perfection as a means of cultural, social and religious integration.

In 2008, I started a new research line in Peace Studies, following on from my work at the Peace and Conflict Institute of the University of Granada on Women as builders of Peace and Ecofeminism. My work and activity as a member of the Peace and Conflict research Institute has also given a wider dimension to my main research line, adding to it the purposes of the United Nations and UNESCO in order to develop attitudes and life-styles that are more respectful of other cultures and religions.

My studies have led me to conclude that the historical experience of our ancestors is very valuable for the present, as we can find in it the roots of what we are today. At a time when racial and religious fanaticism, conflicts and intolerance cause so much suffering, it is fundamental that cultural diversity and religion should be broached from an open and integrative perspective, emphasizing the similarities between different cultures and religious beliefs and the common goals which each of their members, regardless of their race, religion or nation, strive to achieve. This would help to promote the respect, dialogue and exchange of different cultural values and religious beliefs in the present day and to achieve a more tolerant society. This research may therefore prove useful in fostering a better understanding our world and preventing the mistakes of our forebears from being repeated in the present.