Esperanza Alfonso

Esperanza Alfonso serves as a Research Fellow at the Center for Social and Human Sciences within Spain's Spanish National Research Council (CSIC). She has held distinguished fellowships at the University of Pennsylvania's Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies during 1998-1999 and 2012-2013, focusing on medieval Iberian Jewish scholarship.

Her research specializes in the cultural dynamics of 13th-century Castile, particularly examining Hebrew Bible translations into vernacular languages and Jewish identities within Al-Andalus. She investigates intersections of Jewish, Christian, and Muslim intellectual traditions through works analyzing poetry, religious texts, and institutional conflicts in medieval Iberia. Her methodology emphasizes comparative analysis of religious coexistence and textual transmission across linguistic boundaries.

Notable awards include the Selma Ruben Fellowship for "Poetry and Culture in Medieval and Renaissance Jewry" and a Katz Center Fellowship for "Institutionalization, Innovation, and Conflict in 13th-Century Judaism: A Comparative View," reflecting her contributions to understanding medieval religious pluralism.