Marta Vicente

Marta Vicente is a Professor of History at the University of Kansas specializing in the history of women, gender, and sexuality, particularly in Spain and Europe. Her work spans from the early modern period to the present, with a focus on transgender narratives, feminist theory, and the intersection of gender with colonial and industrial histories. She holds a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University (1999) and has authored influential books like Debating Sex and Gender in Eighteenth-Century Spain (2017) and Clothing the Spanish Empire (2006), which won the 2010 Best First Book Prize from the Association of Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies.

Her research explores how medical, legal, and social definitions of gender were contested in early modern Spain, examining cases of sexual ambiguity and transgender experiences. She is currently completing a book titled Reinventing Nature: Transgender Narratives from the Inquisition to the Internet, tracing transgender histories across five centuries. Prof. Vicente teaches courses on European women’s history, feminist theory, and the history of women and the body, integrating interdisciplinary perspectives from literature, law, and material culture.

Publications highlight her expertise in Iberian archives, early modern censorship (e.g., the Spanish Inquisition’s handling of forbidden texts), and the global calico trade’s gendered dimensions. Her work bridges historical scholarship with contemporary debates on gender identity, emphasizing how past discourses inform modern understandings of sexuality and gender fluidity.

Notable awards include recognition for her pioneering work on Spanish colonial economic history. Her teaching and research underscore the importance of intersectional approaches to gender, race, and class in historical analysis.