EAJS President (2023-2027) and Trustee/Director
Javier Castaño is a Senior Research Scientist in Jewish History at Spain’s National Research Council (CSIC) in Madrid. He completed his PhD in Medieval History at the University Complutense. Throughout his academic career he has focused on the Jews in Iberian medieval society and the early modern Mediterranean Diaspora. He held visiting teaching positions at the EHESS in Paris, and at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and research fellowships at Harvard University, the Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies, and the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies. He is an editor of the journal Sefarad (2006-15).
He has published studies on the social and regional mobility of medieval Iberian Jews, the relation between economic behaviour and religion, and the socio-economic mechanics behind religious conversion in the early modern period. He has been involved in controversies regarding the interpretation and uses of Jewish heritage in Spain. His current research focuses on the study of Jewish archival documents and halakhic texts in Hebrew script scattered through Iberian archives and libraries (Ginze Sefarad project) preparing a palaeographical and diplomatic edition of the documentary corpus.
He became a member of the EAJS at an early stage in his academic career, convinced that the strengthening of the European scholarly interaction and integration would be one of the keys to a better understanding of regional Jewish societies, that transcended political and linguistic borders, as well as for the study and safeguarding of their cultural heritage.