Sara Carreño Lopez

Sara Carreño Lopez serves as Assistant Professor in the Department of Art History within the Faculty of Geography and History at the University of Santiago de Compostela. She is also affiliated with the Humanities Research Institute (iHUS) and the Iacobus research group focused on cultural heritage projects. Her academic background includes a BA in Art History (2013), MA in European Medieval Studies (2014), and PhD in Medieval Studies (2020), all from the University of Santiago de Compostela. Her doctoral thesis examined The sculptural image of the Crucified in Galicia in the 14th century. Types, uses and meanings.

Her research focuses on medieval art history with particular expertise in Galician medieval sculpture, crucifixion imagery, stone crosses, and religious iconography. She employs interdisciplinary approaches that incorporate sensory studies and material culture analysis to understand medieval visual and devotional practices. Her work bridges art historical analysis with cultural studies, examining how religious artifacts functioned within medieval society and how they've been interpreted in national discourses.

Carreño Lopez's scholarly output demonstrates consistent publication activity from 2017 through 2024 across various formats including journal articles, book chapters, and conference presentations. Her work appears in prominent journals such as National Identities, Religions, and Arte Cristiana, with recent publications examining topics like Galician nationalism in art history, polychrome sculpture, and the relationship between materiality and religious efficacy in medieval contexts. Her research often takes comparative approaches, examining Galician art within broader Iberian, Atlantic, and European contexts.

She has demonstrated scholarly leadership through organizing academic events, including a Call for Papers for a special issue on "The Role of the Senses in Medieval Liturgies and Rituals" (2022) and another for "Experience and Reception of Images, Objects, and Spaces in the Iberian Peninsula and the Americas" (2024).