# Spanish Exile Study Group ## expand\_more ***Chair:*** [***Carolina Rodríguez-López***](https://www.ucm.es/udcontemporanea/carolina-rodriguez-lopez) ***(Complutense University of Madrid, Spain)*** ***Co-chair:*** [***Daniel Aguirre Oteiza***](https://danielaguirreoteiza.rll-faculty.fas.harvard.edu/) ***(Harvard University)*** The Spanish exile that emerged during the Civil War and the subsequent Francoist dictatorship has frequently been the subject of research from a wide range of scientific fields. The attention devoted to this issue and the published historiography clearly demonstrate the importance this phenomenon had in the transfer of culture, science, research, and everyday habits; in the creation of scientific and intellectual schools; in the shaping of emotional communities that made it possible to channel experiences, practices, and ways of life; and in many other aspects. Furthermore, the years in which Spanish exile spread across the world coincided with those in which emigrants and exiles from all over Europe sought asylum and refuge that would allow them to save their lives, continue their personal projects, and carry on their scientific work—most often abruptly interrupted. This Study Group on Exile Research pays special attention to scientific and academic exile. It aims to trace the paths of researchers and teachers who, once outside Spain, settled in various academic environments that served as refuges where they could, if possible, fully develop the potential of their training and expertise—resources that Spain could no longer benefit from. Their presence in the new academic spaces in which they integrated, their research and scientific work, their connection with international networks, their commitment as exiles, as well as their daily lives and the experiences they accumulated during their exile process, will all be examined by us. ![photo](/sites/g/files/omnuum986/files/styles/hwp_1_1__720x720_scale/public/2026-03/Picture1.png?itok=otayTW0b) Likewise, the project supported by this group seeks to compare the presence and experience of Spanish exiled academics with those of other specialists from different countries who shared similar experiences, workplaces, and research projects. One pending task in Spanish exile historiography is to integrate Spanish exiles into an international framework that enables comparative analysis. **This group has three main objectives:** Identify, Explore, Compare. **Theoretical framework:** history of cultural transfers, transnational history, biography and the history of emotions; philosophy and philosophical thought; science and research; scientific and philosophical schools. **Thematic areas:** history of exile, intellectual history, history of science, experience and everyday life. **Geographical scope:** United States, Europe, Latin America, Spain. **Specific focus:** The case studies and proposals presented here will find their concrete setting in universities on the East Coast of the United States. The project aims to explore the stated objectives through case studies whose research is already underway, and which will make it possible to construct and reconstruct the history of the presence of Spanish academic and intellectual exile on the American East Coast. **Research projects and promoting research groups:** - Project: *Transnational Encounters in a Global Campus: Academic Displacement.* Ministry of Science and Innovation. PI1: Carolina Rodríguez-López. PI2: José M. Faraldo. Ministry of Science and Innovation: PID2024-159800NB-I00. - Project: [*A Global Campus*](https://www.ucm.es/globalcampus/actividades)*: University Communities, Cultural Transfers, and Experiences in the 20th Century.* PI: Carolina Rodríguez-López. Ministry of Science and Innovation: PID2020-113106GB-I00. 2021–2024. - Research Group: [EXPEhistoria](https://www.ucm.es/expehistoria/): Ideas, Knowledge, and Experiences. Research Group in Intellectual and Sociocultural History. PI: Carolina Rodríguez-López. **Sponsors and Support:** - Observatory of the Spanish Language and Hispanic Cultures in the United States – [Instituto Cervantes at Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences.](https://cervantesobservatorio.fas.harvard.edu/) **First RCCHU Spanish Exile Study Group Seminar: May 28–29, 2024.** **Participants:** Christopher Maurer (Boston University), Ritama Muñoz Rojas, Javier Moreno Luzón (Complutense University of Madrid), Antonio González Bueno (Complutense University of Madrid), Luis Fernández Cifuentes (Harvard University), Carmen de la Guardia (Autonomous University of Madrid), and Carolina Rodríguez-López (Complutense University of Madrid). **Second RCCHU Spanish Exile Study Group Seminar: April 24, 2025.** **Participants:** Carlos Ramos (Wellesley College), Carmen de la Guardia (Autonomous University of Madrid), Jara Muñoz Hernández (Polytechnic University of Madrid), and Carolina Rodríguez-López (Complutense University of Madrid). --- Attachments- [ picture\_as\_pdf ProgramaRCC Study Group 23 mayo 24.pdf ](/sites/g/files/omnuum986/files/2026-03/ProgramaRCC%20Study%20Group%2023%20mayo%2024.pdf) - [ picture\_as\_pdf ProgramaRCC Study Group APRIL 2025\_participants.pdf ](/sites/g/files/omnuum986/files/2026-03/ProgramaRCC%20Study%20Group%20APRIL%202025_participants.pdf) ---