The jury of the University of Málaga Spain-Ireland Awards of the “Aula María Zambrano de Estudios Transatlánticos”, which are part of the Centre of Iberoamerican and Transatlantic Studies jury of FGUMA-UMA (CEIT), has announced the results of its last call. The award has been granted to “The influence of the Spanish Armada on contemporary Spanish-Irish relationships (XX-XXI centuries)”, written by researchers Natalia Mateo Ripoll and Juan José Oña Fernández. The presentation of the award Will take place in 2025.
The jury, presided by the CEIT director, Dr. Juan Antonio García Galindo, has emphasised that “this text focuses on Ireland’s relationship with Spain since the sinking of the Spanish Armada, a historical event still in the memory of both Irish and Spanish citizens”. The jury has also valued “the amount of individuals and documents consulted, what helps to enrich the research carried out”. No second prize has been awarded.
History of the Spain-Ireland Awards of the “Aula María Zambrano de Estudios Transatlánticos”
The awards were created in 2018 thanks to the patronage of José Antonio Sierra Lumbreras, founder of the Instituto Cultural Español in Dublin. The aim of these awards is to stimulate research on the relationship between both countries in any academic and scientific discipline. Between 2018 and 2023 there have been 5 annual calls of the Spain-Ireland Awards with three different awards every year: the George Campbell Award, the Kate O'Brien Award and the Robert Boyd Award.
In the 2018-2019 edition the award went to “Irish Writers in Spain in the 1960s and 1970s: Pearse Hutchinson and Aidan Higgins” by Verónica Membrive, professor and researcher from the University of Almería. In the 2019-2020 edition the award was for the University of Málaga researchers Lorena Arce Romeral and Miriam Seghiri Domínguez, for “Generación de plantillas de redacción y traducción (inglés-español) de contratos de compraventa de viviendas: un estudio aplicado a España e Irlanda” (Creation of templates for the writing and translation of realstate contracts in Ireland and Spain). In 2020-2021 the winner was Pilar Iglesias Aparicio, doctor in English Philology for her essay “Las Lavanderías de la Magdalena de Irlanda y los centros del Patronato de Protección a la Mujer de España: ejemplos de política sexual de represión y punición de las mujeres" (The Magdalene Laundries in Ireland and the Centers for the Protection of Women in Spain: Examples of the sexual politics of repression and punishment of women). In the 2021-2022 edition, the Kate O'Brien award went to the work “Mujeres transatlánticas que se rebelan a la tierra firme en ‘tiempos de hombres’”, by Víctor Calderón Fajardo, from the University of Málaga, and the Robert Boyd Award to “Tierra de promisión. La familia Costello y la Diáspora Irlandesa. Genealogía, Globalización y Comercio Atlántico en la Andalucía del Siglo XVIII”, by Salvador David Pérez González, also from the University of Málaga. This edition, which opened in March 2023 and with its deadline in December of that same year, will be the last one.