WONDER RESEARCH NETWORK

International network of researchers on

Women's and Gender History in the Iberian Worlds:

Global Knowledge Production

(16th-20th centuries)

About Us

The WONDER Network was established in 2023 to connect scholars of gender and women’s history engaged in the study of women in the global Iberian Worlds. We are focused on knowledge production and the network's aim is to foster dialogues between researchers in the field, coordinate activities and seminars to advance the study of gender and women’s history, and to disseminate research by members.

Our hub is composed of a diverse group of scholars from around the world. All of our researchers are dedicated to advancing the field of Women’s History and promoting a more nuanced understanding of the past.

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Current Activities

Starting the Wonder Colloquia Series 2025 in great style!

On May 13th-14th, 2025, we will have the honor of welcoming

Professor Laura Beck Varela

(Universidad Autónoma de Madrid)

to the Max Planck Institute for Legal History and Legal Theory, in Frankfurt am Main, for two hybrid events.

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Laura Beck Varela is Associate Professor of History of Law at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid since 2013. She accomplished her PhD studies in the University of Seville and the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University of Frankfurt am Main/Max-Planck-Institut für europäische Rechtsgeschichte; was a postdoctoral fellow at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, at the Max-Planck Institut, and the Herzog August Bibliothek. Currently, she is a member of several academic associations, such as the international research network “Natural law 1625-1850” (Interdisciplinary Centre for European Enlightenment Studies, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg).

Beck Varela has worked and published on the history of property law, legal education, gender history and book and censorship studies. She has explored the impact of censorship on the circulation of legal literature in her book Literatura Jurídica y Censura. Fortuna de Vinnius en España (Valencia, 2013) and in other studies, such as "La enseñanza del derecho y los Índices de libros prohibidos. Notas para un panorama ibérico, 1583-1640”, in: Le università e la Riforma protestante. Studi e ricerche nel quinto anniversario delle tesi luterane (Bologna, 2018).