Dr. María Isabel Pérez Alonso
Area: Hebrew and Aramaic Studies, University of Salamanca, Spain
Education & Position
Dr. Pérez Alonso holds a PhD in Hebrew Philology from the University of Salamanca (2017), with a dissertation titled Las sĕlīḥot la-ʼašmurot de R. Yehudah ha-Leví: traducción y estudio literario.
She is a permanent staff member (“Profesora Permanente Laboral”) in the Department of Spanish Language, within the Instituto de Estudios Medievales y Renacentistas at the University of Salamanca.
She teaches in the field of Hebrew and Aramaic Studies.
Research Interests & Teaching Areas
Her academic work and courses cover a range of topics including:
Medieval “romanceadas” Bibles (i.e., manuscripts/translations of the Bible from Hebrew into medieval Romance languages or mixed Hebrew-Romance)
Liturgical poetry in Hebrew and Aramaic, especially seliḥot (penitential poems) such as those of Yehudah ha-Levi.
Contact linguistics between Hebrew, Spanish (Castilian), Aramaic, and other Romance influences — including how linguistic features (lexical, semantic, morphosyntactic) transfer or interact among these languages.
Women writers and female figures in Hebrew and Aramaic literature.
Selected Publications & Contributions
Some of her notable scholarly contributions include:
Las sĕlīḥot la-ʼašmurot de R. Yehudah ha-Leví: traducción y estudio literario (2017), her doctoral thesis, which includes translation, literary study, and annotated apparatus of these poems.
“La olla judía del sábado: estudio lexicológico y lexicográfico de adafina, hamin, caliente(s) y otras denominaciones” — a lexicographic & lexicological study of Sabbath-day food names among Jewish and converso communities.
“Sabadear: un ejemplo de la influencia de la cultura judía en la creación de un derivado romance” — on how Jewish culture influenced certain Romance derivations.
Dr. Pérez Alonso is part of the research group TOLDOT: Investigaciones Hispanohebreas y Sefardíes en contexto, based in Salamanca.
