{"id":828,"date":"2026-04-09T19:22:45","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T17:22:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/webs.uab.cat\/badems\/?page_id=828"},"modified":"2026-04-09T19:23:57","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T17:23:57","slug":"new-project","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/webs.uab.cat\/badems\/new-project\/","title":{"rendered":"Project"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The Badems<\/em> project embarks on an exploration of the Black African diaspora in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Spain, seeking to recover its untold cultural legacies. Through an interdisciplinary approach, Badems<\/em> challenges traditional narratives about the formation of European identity and the role of Black Africans in shaping cultural and intellectual life. Centered on Spain and its connections to the broader Iberian World, the project provides a fresh scholarly framework for understanding how Black Africans\u2014free, half-manumitted, and enslaved\u2014actively contributed to the making of culture, the construction of Blackness, and the processes of identity formation during the early modern period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A compelling entry point into this world is the story of Leonor Rica, a woman of color who, in 1587, won first prize for her dance performance at the Corpus Christi festivities in Seville. Leonor was an accomplished artist who led a company of Black dancers, musicians, and actors (Brooks, 1988; Bejarano, 2014). Her success offers a glimpse into the much broader, yet often overlooked, world of Black cultural creators in Spain\u2014individuals whose artistic and intellectual contributions were integral to the cultural vibrancy of the period. Despite this, scholarship has long neglected the active role of Black Africans as cultural performers and creators, as well as the size and influence of Spain\u2019s Black African diaspora\u2014second only to Portugal in early modern Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Badems<\/em> aims to rectify this historical oversight by conducting a systematic investigation into the cultural contributions of Black Africans in early modern Spain. The project seeks to uncover new evidence, connect previously unlinked data, and illuminate the artistic and intellectual lives of Black communities, particularly through the lenses of social, cultural, and literary history. By focusing on the lived experiences of Black Africans\u2014through their creative practices, their contributions to mainstream cultural productions, and their roles in shaping the cultural narratives of Blackness\u2014Badems<\/em> offers a much-needed scholarly reframing of Spain\u2019s cultural history. It is not only a project of recovery but also one that seeks to redefine the ways we understand race, cultural identity, and the Black presence in early modern Europe. The Badems<\/em> project is structured around three overarching goals. First, to create new paradigms in the cultural history of early modern Spain; second, to redefine how we read and understand cultural productions; and third, to transform our understanding of the Black African diaspora in Iberia. To achieve these goals, Badems<\/em> pursues a multidisciplinary methodology that incorporates cultural history, literary analysis, and linguistics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cultural History and the Black Diaspora. <\/strong>Cultural history has yet to offer a comprehensive study of the Black African diaspora in Spain, and Badems<\/em> aims to fill this gap. By merging social and cultural practices, the project seeks to interrogate the early modern period through the lens of cultural history, posing critical questions about the roles Black Africans played in cultural life. How did Black women and men engage in cultural activities within the constraints and possibilities of their social positions? What forms of cultural production\u2014whether dance, music, theater, or other art forms\u2014were created or influenced by Black Africans? And perhaps most crucially, what traces of these cultural contributions have survived to the present day? By addressing these questions, Badems<\/em> aims to deepen our understanding of the African presence in early modern Spain and its contributions to the making of European culture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Literary Studies and Blackness. <\/strong>In the field of literary studies, Badems<\/em> challenges existing scholarship that has typically focused on how white authors depicted Black characters in literature\u2014often ignoring or minimizing the involvement of Black Africans as active participants in cultural creation. Badems<\/em> takes a novel approach by examining both literary texts and historical sources, offering a more holistic view of Black Africans\u2019 engagement with cultural productions. The project asks critical questions: What role did Black communities play in shaping the concept of Blackness in mainstream cultural narratives? What were the conditions, motivations, and limits that governed their involvement in these cultural processes? By addressing these questions, Badems<\/em> will offer a new interpretation of the relationship between Black Africans and the literature of early modern Spain, providing fresh readings of literary and historical context.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Linguistic Practices and Transcultural Mediation. <\/strong>The Badems<\/em> project also explores the linguistic dimensions of Black African life in early modern Spain. What languages did Black Africans speak, learn, and use in their daily lives? How did the intersection of Portuguese, Spanish, and African languages shape their cultural practices and their interactions with other communities? With these questions, Badems<\/em> investigates how multilingualism shaped their experiences in Iberia. This linguistic focus will fill a critical gap in our understanding of the African diaspora, providing evidence that Black Africans were multilingual, often negotiating complex transcultural spaces. By studying these linguistic practices, Badems<\/em> aims to shed light on the ways Black women and men mediated cultural exchanges, contributing to the shaping of Iberian identity in the process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ultimately, the\u00a0Badems<\/em>\u00a0project aims to recover a community silenced by time and cultural forgetting, as well as power hierarchies\u2014one that played a vital role in shaping the cultural and intellectual landscape of Spain and the Iberian World. Through its interdisciplinary approach, the project will contribute to global scholarly debates about the making of Blackness, the emergence of race in Iberia, and the cultural contributions of Black Africans in Europe, offering a more inclusive and accurate understanding of early modern Iberian culture.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Badems project embarks on an exploration of the Black African diaspora in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Spain, seeking to recover its untold cultural legacies. Through an interdisciplinary approach, Badems challenges traditional narratives about the formation of European identity and the role of Black Africans in shaping cultural and intellectual life. Centered on Spain and its connections to the broader […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3014,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-828","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/webs.uab.cat\/badems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/webs.uab.cat\/badems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/webs.uab.cat\/badems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webs.uab.cat\/badems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3014"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webs.uab.cat\/badems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=828"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/webs.uab.cat\/badems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/828\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":835,"href":"https:\/\/webs.uab.cat\/badems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/828\/revisions\/835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/webs.uab.cat\/badems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}