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The University of Southampton
Southampton Marine and Maritime Institute
Email:
fjs1s07@soton.ac.uk

Dr Francois Soyer PhD

Associate Professor of Late Medieval and Early Modern History, Marketing Officer, semester 2

Dr Francois Soyer's photo

Dr Francois Soyer is an Associate Professor of Late Medieval and Early Modern History at the University of Southampton.

After completing my PhD at the University of Cambridge in 2007 under the supervision of Professor David Abulafia, I was awarded a Leverhulme Trust Study Abroad Studentship that enabled me to conduct two years of postdoctoral research in the archives of the Inquisition in Spain and Portugal.

In September 2008 I was appointed as a lecturer at the University of Southampton and between 2012 and 2015 I held an Australian Research Council Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Centre for the History of Emotions in the University of Adelaide.

Research interests

I am interested in the history of the kingdoms of Spain and Portugal (and their respective overseas empires) during the late medieval and early modern period (1450-1750).

My research focuses particularly on the history of anti-Semitism and anti-Semitic propaganda in early modern Europe in general and the Iberian world in particular. I also work on the history of the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions.

I have completed book on anti-Semitic conspiracy theories in the early modern Iberian world and I am currently working on a project tracing the origins, development and impact of the Blood Libel legend in Spain, focusing especially the Blood Libel cases of Santo Dominguito de Val and the Holy Child of La Guardia.

A more long-term project on the accusation of host desecration that was frequently levelled against conversos (the descendants of Jewish converts to Christianity) in early modern Spain, Portugal and their overseas colonies.

My other research interests include the history of gender and sexuality in the early modern Iberian World and the history of the censorship of art in the early modern Hispanic world. I am currently writing a short book on the life and trial of Maria Duran, a Catalan woman, cross-dresser and lesbian who was arrested and prosecuted by the Portuguese Inquisition in 1741-1744.

Dr Francois Soyer
Building 65 Faculty of Arts and Humanities University of Southampton Avenue Campus Highfield Southampton SO17 1BF United Kingdom

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