Matilde Mateo specializes in medievalism, the reception of medieval art and architecture after the Middle Ages. Her research focuses on two different lines of inquiry. One is the manipulation of Spanish medieval art and architecture in historiography, rituals, and policies, in order to construct a national identity. The other is how the Gothic has been conceptualized, visualized, and manipulated over the centuries in art theory, literature and film, architecture, visual representations and fashion, from its conception as a barbarian style by the Italian humanists to its last mutation in contemporary Goth culture. She has been visiting scholar at Yale University, Indiana University, and a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Chicago.

She has taught at the University of Vigo (Spain) and the University of Arizona. At Syracuse University, she teaches courses related to her research (HOA 412 The Gothic Spell), as well as on classical and medieval art and architecture.

“The Victory Cross Redux: Ritual, Memory, and Politics in the Aftermath of the Spanish Civil War”, in The Long Life of Medieval Art, ed. by Sarah Thompson and Jennifer Felter, Routledge, 2019, 209-226. (Book Chapter)

“The Form of Race: Architecture, Epistemology, and National Identity in Fernando Chueca Goitia´s Invariantes castizos de la arquitectura española (1947)”, in Envisioning Others: Race, Color, and the Visual in Iberia and Latin-America, ed. by Pamela Patton, Brill Academic Publishers, 2016, 266-305. Honorable Mention for the Eleanor Tufts Award from the American Society for Hispanic Art Historical Studies.
http://www.brill.com/products/book/envisioning-others-race-color-and-visual-iberia-and-latin-america

"In Search of the Origin of the Gothic: Thomas Pitt´s Travel in Spain in 1760", Journal of Art Historiography, 15: December 2016.
https://arthistoriography.wordpress.com/15-dec16/.

“La frontera del gótico: James Fergusson y la marginación del gótico español”, Quintana. Revista del Departamento de Historia del Arte de la Universidad de Santiago, no. 13, 2014, 77-97
http://www.usc.es/revistas/index.php/quintana/issue/view/196

Please visit my Academia.edu page for a complete listings of my books, articles, book chapters, reviews, conference papers, and other publications, including some full text.
https://syr.academia.edu/MMateo

Academic Honors

• Premio Extraordinario de Doctorado, 1995, University of Santiago.
• M.A. with Distinction, 1995, University of Essex.

Fellowships, Grants and Scholarhips

• Summer Institute sponsored by the NEH, in Granada, Spain, entitled "The Alhambra and Spain’s Islamic Past” from June 15 to July 10, 2015.
• F.P.I. Postdoctoral Fellowship from the Ministerio de Educación y Cultura, Spain, to the University of Chicago, 1997-99 (two years) Equivalent to a post-doctoral Fullbright or NEH.
• Fellowship by “La Caixa-The British Council”, to the University of Essex, 1993-94 (one year), to carry out an M.A.degree.
• Pre-doctoral research fellowship by the Xunta de Galicia (Autonomous Goverment of Galicia, Spain) to London, 1988-89 (two years). Similar to pre-doc Fullbright fellowships.

Please click on my CV for a full list of other honors, awards, employment, and service.

Co-supervisor with Fernando Marias of a Ph. D. Dissertation by Miriam Cera, Arquitectura e identidad national en la España de las Luces, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 2018. Suma cum Laude and Premio Extraordinario de Doctorado

“Before Amador de los Ríos: Mudéjar and National Identity in España artísticy monumental (1842-1850). Paper presented at the first SIGA (Society for Iberian Global Art), “SIGA/Seguir: Moving Forward in the Study of Iberial Global Art, Dumbarton Oaks, Washington DC, September 20-21, 2024.

“Imaginary Architecture as Imagined Community: “The Market” by Jenaro Pérez Villaamil”. Paper presented at the international conference “Canons and Repertoires: Constructing the Visual Arts in the Hispanic World”, held at the Zurbarán Centre for Spanish and Latin American Art, Durham, UK, June 20-21, 2019.