Luis Corteguera

Contact Information Phone: (785) 864-9469 Office: 3630 Wescoe Hall Email: lcortegu@ku.edu

Assoc. Prof. (Ph.D. Princeton, 1992; M.A. Princeton, 1986; B.A. Brandeis, 1984). Fields of Interest: Spain in the 16th and 17th centuries, popular politics in Early Modern Europe, Renaissance and Reformation, Atlantic History.

Most of my research has investigated popular politics in sixteenth and seventeenth-century Spain to answer a number of fundamental questions: What were the political ideas of common men and women in the early modern era? What moved them to obey or to rebel? We still know relatively little about the political actions and ideas of most men and women between the Renaissance and the Age of Religious Wars. My interest in investigating the history of popular politics led to my first book, For the Common Good: Popular Politics in Barcelona, 1580-1640 (Cornell, 2002). It examines how artisans shaped the relations between Madrid and Barcelona in the decades leading to one of the greatest crises in Spanish history, the Catalan Revolt of 1640. In fact, between 1580 and 1640 Barcelona artisans became political actors of the greatest importance, actively participating in the events that led to the Catalan revolt, which in turn contributed to the end of Spanish supremacy over Europe.

I have also explored early modern concepts of politics and the political ideas of individuals of various social backgrounds in a number of recent articles: "The Painter Who Lost His Hat: Artisans and Justice in Early Modern Barcelona," Sixteenth Century Journal (1998); "Popular Politics in Composite Monarchies: Barcelona Artisans and the Campaign for a Papal Bull Against Hoarding (1580-5),” Social History (2001); "The Making of A Visionary: The Life of Beatriz Ana Ruiz," in Women, Texts and Authority in the Early Modern Spanish World, ed. Marta Vicente and Luis Corteguera (Ashgate, 2004);and "Authority in the Margins: Reexamining the Autograph Letters between Sor María de Agreda and Philip IV of Spain" (coauthored with Sherry Velasco), to appear in Jeanne Gillespie and Lucia Harrington, eds., From the Convent Cell to the Imperial Court: Women's Voices and the Politics of Spanish Empire.

Currently, I am working on my second book, "Before God and King: The Individual in Politics in Golden Age Spain," which examines the encounters between men and women from low social backgrounds and their monarchs in face-to-face meetings, written appeals, visions, and in literature. These dramatic encounters shed light into the place of ordinary people in early modern Spanish politics, as well as their possibilities and limitations for political action.

Finally, if you are considering graduate studies in any of my fields of interest, I strongly urge you to contact me before you apply.