María Sierra is Full-time Professor at the University of Seville (Spain), in the Department of Contemporary History. She is the Researcher Leader of BESTROM.
Her work in Romani Studies has focused on the problem of the representation of Roma people and their cultural practices, paying attention to the political meaning of these actions. She is currently conducting a research project on Roma´s history: History of The Gypsies: Exclusion, Stereotypes and Citizeship (XVIII-XX Centuries) (2016-2019). Her many recent contributions in this field include: “Creating Romanestan: A Place to be a ‘Gypsy’ in Post-Nazi Europe”, European History Quarterly; “Uncivilized Emotions: Romantic Images and Marginalization of the Gitanos/Spanish Gypsies”, Pakistan Journal of Historical Studies (Emotions and Marginalized Communities, 2016), and “Historia gitana: enfrentarse a la maldición de George Borrow” (Ayer, 2018). She has been actively collaborating with Romani associations for the last five years.
She is also the author of a wide range of studies on transnational and comparative History of Citizenry, using Gender Theory, History of Emotions and Political Cultures as main approaches to the topic of political representation. She has conducted several research projects in this field, all framed in the National Plan of R&D of Spanish Government, uninterruptedly from 2002. Among her numerous publications regarding theses topics: Enemies Within: Cultural Hierarchies and Liberal Political Models in the Hispanic World (2015); “Política, Romanticismo y masculinidad: “Tassara”, Historia y Política, 27, 2012.