Dr. Emily Colbert Cairns
- Associate professor
- Chair, Modern Languages
- McAuley Scholar
Areas of Expertise
- Conversos, crypto-Jews, women and gender in the early modern period
Education
- B.A. in Spanish and mathematics, Hamilton College (2006)
- M.A. in Spanish, University of California Irvine (2008)
- Ph.D. in Spanish, University of California Irvine (2012)
What's My Why?
I study the early modern period in Spain and the transatlantic empire in the 1500-1700s. The topics that were most important to people back then resonate with our experiences today. Many of the themes of religious diversity, the role of figures who are otherized, the treatment of women dialogue with current social movements of MeToo and NotOneLess, are present in our world today. These "dialogues" with the past help my students and myself to learn and think critically in the classroom and in my research.
Professional Experience
I am on the board of the Touro Synagogue Foundation and GEMELA: Grupo de estudios sobre la mujer en España y las Américas (pre-1800), and I am involved with the local community organization Conexión Latina.
Media Coverage
The Torah.com, The Providence Journal
Selected Publications
Esther in Early Modern Iberia and the Sephardic Diaspora: Queen of the Conversas. Palgrave Macmillan, 2017.
Early Modern Maternities. Co-editor with Nieves Romero-Diaz. Amsterdam University Press, 2024.
Confined Women: Walls of Female Space in Inquisitorial Spain. Co-editor with Brian M. Phillips. Hispanic Issues On Line, 2020.
“Maternal Practice and the Chuetas of Mallorca: The Inquisitorial Trials of Pedro Onofre Cortés.” Religions: Special Issue Theology and Aesthetics in the Spanish and Portuguese Empires). Eds. Dale Shuger and Dana Bultman 2024.
“Critical Cluster: Food Studies Medieval and Early Modern Period.” Guest Editor, La Corónica: A Journal of Medieval Hispanic Languages, Literatures and Cultures. (Vol. 49, No. 3, Summer 2021).