About Roger L. Martínez-Dávila, Ph.D.

Roger L. Martínez-Dávila, Ph.D. is a historian of medieval and early-modern Iberia whose work centers on Sephardic Jews, conversos/crypto-Jews, and the archival traces of their lives from late medieval Castile to the Spanish Americas. A Professor of History at the University of Colorado–Colorado Springs and former Marie Curie CONEX Fellow at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, he pairs rigorous manuscript research and paleography with digital humanities methods, public history, and collaborative pedagogy. For background and current projects, visit his site’s Biography page. (rogermartinezdavila.com)

Contact me at https://www.rogermartinezdavila.com/contact-me

Signature Books, Catalogs, and Jewish History Publications

• Creating Conversos: The Carvajal–Santa María Family in Early Modern Spain (University of Notre Dame Press, 2018). A microhistory of intertwined rabbinic and noble lineages that became emblematic of converso identity formation across late-medieval and early-modern Castile, with ramifications in the New World. Book page → Notre Dame Press listing.
• Fractured Faiths: Spanish Judaism, the Inquisition, and New World Identities (ed., with Josef Díaz and Ron D. Hart; Fresco/UNM Press, 2016). Bilingual exhibition catalog that visualizes Sephardic migration, persecution, and cultural resilience from medieval Iberia to colonial America; tied to the acclaimed New Mexico History Museum exhibition. Catalog • Exhibition.
• “Trans-Atlantic ‘Hebrew’ and Converso Networks: Conquistadors, Churchmen, and Crypto-Jews in the Spanish Extremadura and Colonial Spanish America,” Journal of Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian Crypto-Jews 4 (2012): 135–166. (Download via Publications.)
• “Sephardic Origins and Transformations in the Spanish Extremadura: Project Synopsis and Database User Guide” (Jerusalem: International Institute for Jewish Genealogy and the Paul Jacobi Center, National Library of Israel, 2014), accompanied by a downloadable GEDCOM database for researchers. [User Guide] and [GEDCOM] on Publications.
• “Shields of Grace,” El Palacio (Winter 2016): 56–65 — a public-facing essay on material culture and Sephardic memory, connected to Fractured Faiths. (See Publications.)

Recent and in-press work that intersects Jewish history and method:

• “Traigo nuevas de las Américas: el peligroso viaje de una familia sefardita judía-católica,” Revista de Ciencias y Humanidades de la Fundación Ramón Areces, special America&Spain250 issue (2025). (PDF via Publications.)
• “Digital Methods for Reimagining the Global Middle Ages: A Focus on Immersive Virtual Reality,” Medievalismo (Sociedad Española de Estudios Medievales), in press (2025). Publications.
• “The Space Between Jews, Christians, and Muslims in Medieval Spain: MOOCs, Citizen Science, and Digital Manuscript Collections,” Dark Archives V.1 (2023). Publications.

Archival Method, Paleography, and Databases

Martínez-Dávila’s scholarship is grounded in paleographic analysis of 12th–17th-century Iberian manuscripts (Latin and Romance/Germanic vernaculars) and in multi-archive research spanning municipal, ecclesiastical, provincial, national, and papal repositories. He advocates a five-stage digital-archival workflow (mapping institutional holdings, interrogating digitization layers, and cross-linking non-relational indices) to surface names, kinship, and memory erased by persecution. See Lectures & Video for talks on digital curation and manuscript-based storytelling, and Publications for articles on citizen-science editions and VR-assisted narrative.

A long-running commitment to open genealogical infrastructure is reflected in his IIJG/National Library of Israel user guide and open GEDCOM dataset for Sephardic families — practical tools for scholars and descendants working to reconstruct lineages obscured by Inquisition-era naming practices and migration. Publications → IIJG entries.

Public Scholarship: MOOCs, Exhibitions, and Talks

From 2014–2023, he led Deciphering Secrets: Unlocking the Manuscripts of Medieval Spain, a series of MOOCs and public-humanities projects that collectively engaged ~50,000 learners in collaborative transcription and contextualization of Jewish, Christian, and Muslim records. Course strands such as Coexistence in Medieval Spain continue to guide learners through convivencia, conflict, and interreligious mediation. Explore modules and videos via Lectures & Video (with links to Coursera) and the Biography page.

As co-curator of Fractured Faiths (New Mexico History Museum), he helped frame Sephardic experience through artifacts, manuscripts, and art that chart the trajectory from medieval Sefarad to the Iberian Atlantic. The catalog and exhibit details are available via UNM Press and the Museum site; select essays (e.g., “Shields of Grace”) are linked on Publications.

He also contributes to the America&Spain250 commemoration through research and lectures on Sephardic presence in the U.S. Southwest (e.g., “Traigo nuevas de las Américas: Presencia sefardita en el suroeste de Estados Unidos,” Madrid, May 2024), in coordination with the Queen Sofía Spanish Institute. Biography.

Digital Humanities for Jewish History

Martínez-Dávila’s projects—Virtual Plasencia, Augmented Reflections, and other VR/AR reconstructions—integrate mapped urban fabrics, archival registers, and musical/liturgical soundscapes to re-situate Sephardic and converso communities within their streets, markets, and houses of worship. For overviews and clips, visit Lectures & Video and publications listed on Publications.

How to Explore Further

• Start with the short narrative on identity and origins on the Videos and Lectures page, including the genesis of Creating Conversos.
• Browse the full list of Jewish history outputs on Publications, including the IIJG guide and GEDCOM dataset, Jewish-history articles, exhibition catalog, and book.
• Watch Sephardic-focused talks and course videos via Lectures & Video (e.g., Traigo nuevas de las Américas; museum/VR features; paleography resources).

For media, collaborations, and research inquiries—especially relating to Sephardic genealogy, converso networks, Inquisition records, and digital manuscript collections—please use the contact details on the site’s Biography page.