Blanca Berjano

Clare College
  • PhD student
Blanca Berjano

Contact

About

Supervisor: Prof. Louise Haywood

Research Topic: Love, Poetry, and Gender: The Medieval and Early Modern Roots of Flamenco Songs

I am a PhD student in the Spanish and Portuguese Department, supported by the Cambridge International Scholarship from Cambridge Trust. Before coming to Cambridge, I obtained a BA and MA in Classical Philology from Universidad Complutense de Madrid, an MA in Teaching Spanish as a Foreign Language from Universidad de Sevilla, and an MA in Hispanic Literature from the University of Colorado at Boulder. I have taught Spanish Language and Literature in various locations around the globe, including India, Martinique, the United States, and Mayotte.

Research

My doctoral research explores the medieval and early modern roots of flamenco songs. I study how a lyrical tradition revolving around love and desire was transmitted over the centuries, manifesting in the written compilations and music recordings of nineteenth and early twentieth-century flamenco. I examine how medieval and early modern scholarly discourses built an ideology of love that shaped societal expectations surrounding desire, gender, and sexuality, thereby creating mechanisms of social and bodily control. Through a comparative analysis of medieval and early modern poetry and flamenco songs, I explore how the poems interact with inherited frameworks, sometimes reinforcing the love ideology, and at other times challenging it, thus opening spaces for social transgression and gender subversion. Additionally, I research the involvement of Roma-Gitanos in maintaining this poetic tradition following their arrival in the Iberian Peninsula in 1425, offering a contact-based explanation for the transmission of medieval and early modern poetry into modern flamenco.

Scholarships/Prizes/Fellowships

  • AHGBI Research Travel Award for Graduate Students, Association of Hispanists of Great Britain & Ireland (2025)
  • Clare College Travel Award (2025)
  • Cambridge International Scholarship, Cambridge Trust (2024-2027)
  • Programa Hispanex de ayudas para personas físicas en el ámbito universitario extranjero para la promoción exterior de la lengua y cultura españolas, Ministerio de Cultura y Deporte (2023)   
  • Center for Humanities and the Arts Summer Fellowship, University of Colorado Boulder (2023)
  • Graduate School Travel Grant, University of Colorado Boulder (2023)
  • Walton Award, Rocky Mountain Medieval and Renaissance Association (2023)
  • Beverly Sears & Cynthia H. Schultz Graduate Student Research Grant (2022)
  • Department Summer Research Grant, Department of Spanish and Portuguese, University of Colorado Boulder(2022)
  • Teaching Assistantship, Department of Spanish and Portuguese, University of Colorado Boulder (2021 – 2023)

Conference papers

  • ‘Who Taught Preciosa to Sing? The Role of the Roma-Gitanos in the Transmission of Medieval Songs of the Iberian Peninsula’ - Leeds International Medieval Congress, University of Leeds, July 7-11, 2025
  • ‘Transgression and Constraint in Sixteenth-Century Songs: Exploring the Love and Gender Ideology from the Pliegos Sueltos of the Iberian Peninsula’ - The Long Life of Ephemeral Literature, University of Geneva, April 9-11, 2025
  • ‘Between Historicisation and Romanticisation: About a Sephardic and Andalusi Origin of the Poetry of Flamenco’ - Association for Spanish & Portuguese Historical Studies, University of Colorado at Boulder, May 19-21, 2023.
  • ‘Death, Love, and Poetry: From Medieval Lyric to Flamenco Songs’ - 58th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Medieval Institute at Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, May 11-13th, 2023.
  • ‘Lovesickness and the Beloved’s Gaze: Echoes of the Cancionero and Romancero in the Flamenco Songs’ - Rocky Mountain Medieval & Renaissance Association Conference, Colorado State University in Fort Collins, April 13-15th, 2023.
  • ‘Clodia Metela en el discurso Pro Caelio de Cicerón: un arquetipo subversivo de mujer’ - 13th Graduate Student Conference, Department of Spanish & Portuguese, University of Colorado at Boulder, March 18-19th, 2022.

Publications

Articles in peer-reviewed journals:

  • “Clodia Metela en el discurso Pro Caelio de Cicerón: Un arquetipo subversivo de mujer”, Journal of Feminist, Gender and Women Studies, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, 2020.
  • “Los tipos de se: Propuestas para las clases de ELE”, Revista Mosaico, Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte, 2018.

Collaborations:

  • Martuscelli, Tania, Berjano Blanca, et al. “Entrevista a Walter Mignolo e Catherine E. Walsh”, e-Letras com Vida. Revista de Estudos Globais: Humanidades, Ciências e Artes, n. 11, 2023.
  • “A Jph. Finestres. Alicante, 7 de mayo de 1776”, written by Antonio Valcárcel Pío de Saboya, Conde de Lumiares, Antonio Valcárcel Pío de Saboya, Conde de Lumiares (1748-1808): Apuntes biográficos y escritos inéditos. Real Academia de la Historia, 2009.

Poetry books:

Rosario (Ediciones Valparaíso, 2023).

La barrera más bonita del mundo (Young Poetry Award Fundación Caja Navarra - Luces de Gálibo, 2021).

Ratas en el alféizar (Ménades, 2019).