Dr Antonella Liuzzo Scorpo
Lecturer in Medieval History

email: a.liuzzo-scorpo@qmul.ac.uk
Phone: +44 20 7882 8366

Dr Antonella Liuzzo Scorpo completed her first degree in European Languages and Cultures at the University of Catania (Italy), before undertaking her doctoral research on Medieval Iberian History, Law and Cultural Studies at the University of Exeter. In 2009 she was awarded her PhD for an interdisciplinary project entitled The Idea of Friendship in the Literary, Historical and Legal Works of Alfonso X of Castile (1252-1284), supervised by Professor Simon Barton. She taught at the University of Exeter, in both Hispanic Studies and History, before joining Queen Mary in 2011.

Research interests:

She is interested in the social, cultural and political history of Medieval Europe, and in particular in Thirteenth-Century Iberia. Her main areas of research include the history of ideas and emotions, social and moral implications of interfaith collaborations and political agreements, as well as the connections between friendship and gender relationships, among others. She also worked on the idea and representation of power in Medieval Castile and Leon between the eleventh and the thirteenth centuries, as a member of the international research project involving the Universities of Exeter and Salamanca (Spain) between 2008 and 2011.

Publications:

Selected Publications

‘El ejercicio del poder en la política y en la obra de Alfonso X el Sabio’ Studia Historica. Historia Medieval, 29 (2011), pp.125-157

‘Religious Frontiers and Overlapping Cultural Borders: The Power of Personal and Political Exchanges in the Works of Alfonso X of Castile (1252-1284)’ Al-Masaq (2011), pp. 217-236.

‘Spiritual Friendship in the Works of Alfonso X of Castile: Images of Interaction between the Sacred and Spiritual Worlds of Thirteenth-Century Iberia’, in Marilyn Sandidge and Albrecht Classen (eds.), Friendship in the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Age (Berlin and New York: de Gruyter, 2010), pp. 445-477.

‘The King as Subject, Master and Model of Authority: The Case of Alfonso X of Castile’ in “Every inch a King”: Proceedings of the Conference on Kingship in the Near East and Mediaeval Europe. Cambridge (UK), edited by Brill. In press, expected date of publication: 2012.

Friendship in Medieval Iberia: Historical, Legal and Literary Perspectives, under review.

‘Could a Muslim be “amigo de paz”?: Pragmatic Tolerance and Didactic Models of Friendship in the Works of Alfonso X of Castile’, in preparation.

Undergraduate teaching:

Reconstructing the Past: An Introduction to the Sources for Medieval History- Level 1

The Black Death – Level 5

Contribution to The Medieval World: Structures and Mentalities– Level 4

Contribution to The Middle Ages (1000-1300) – Level 4

Postgraduate teaching:

Contribution to MA Islam and the West