Ignacio Fernandez de Mata

Ignacio Fernández de Mata is an Associate Professor at the University of Burgos, affiliated with the Faculty of Humanities and Communication, Department of History, Geography and Communication. He holds dual PhDs from the University of Burgos (2003) and the University of Deusto (2016), both focusing on anthropological and historical analyses of Iberian societies. His doctoral theses examined pre-modern northern Iberian communities and disappeared victims of the Spanish Civil War, supervised by Juan José García González and Francisco José Ferrándiz Martín respectively.

His research specializes in:

• Cultural violence and memory politics, particularly Francoist repression
• Ethnohistorical methodologies for conflict analysis
• Identity construction in post-dictatorship Spain
• University hazing traditions as cultural phenomena
• Transnational memory justice frameworks

Publication trends reveal deep engagement with Spanish Civil War legacies, combining anthropological fieldwork with archival analysis. His 2021-2025 works demonstrate evolving focus toward:

• Forensic anthropology of mass graves
• Socio-legal dimensions of historical memory
• Comparative analysis of authoritarian violence
• Cultural representations of state terror

He leads the research group SYCON: Sociedad y conflicto. Estudios culturales de la(s) violencia(s) and coordinates the PhD program in Humanities and Communication. Current projects include interdisciplinary investigations of Franco-era famine (1939-1959) and the exhumation of civil war mass graves in Castile and León.