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Bretton Rodriguez

Research Focus: Medieval Iberia, Medieval Castilian Literature, Historiography, Alfonso X, Early Modern Spanish Literature, Medieval English Literature 

Background: Bretton was born in Chicago, but he was raised in Northwest Indiana. He has also lived in Chile, England, Mexico, and Spain. 

Undergraduate Institution: University of Chicago

Master of Arts Institution: University of York 

Current Projects: Bretton is currently working on his dissertation, Narratives of Power: History and Legitimacy in Medieval Castile. This project examines the way that Alfonso X and López de Ayala used the past to legitimize contemporary political power through the construction of authorizing identities. The project also highlights how their work helped transform vernacular historiography into a highly literary genre that re-defined the role of the historian, utilized classical sources in increasingly sophisticated ways, and created a lasting model for how to write historical narratives.    

Publications:

2015 - “López de Ayala and the Politics of Rewriting the Past.” Journal of Medieval Iberian Studies 7.2 (2015): 266-282.   
2011 - Book review of Vincent Barletta, Death in Babylon: Alexander the Great and Iberian Empire in the Muslim Orient. (2011), In Comitatus: a Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies 42 (2011). 
2011- Book review of Kirsten Fudeman, Vernacular Voices: Language and Identity in Medieval French Jewish Communities. (2010), In Comitatus: a Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies 42 (2011).
2010 - Book review of David Rojinsky, Companion to Empire: A Genealogy of the Written Word in Spain and New Spain, c.550-1550 (2010), for the American Academy of Research Historians of Medieval Spain (AARHMS).