Damián Fernández

Current Research

I am currently working on two different projects related to Late Antique and Early Medieval Iberia. The first project is a monographic study of rebellions and coups in the Visigothic Kingdom between the fifth and the eighth centuries CE. This study analyzes laws, canons, chronicles, and hagiography to understand the transformation of ideas on rebellion and political authority between the late Roman empire and the early middle ages. My second project focuses on the transformation of Roman legal norms under barbarian rulers, in particular in the Visigothic kingdom. I am part of a team working on a translation and commentary of the Leges Visigothorum, a legal code issued in the seventh century by Visigothic kings, which summarizes earlier legislation and enacts new norms for the kingdom's subjects.

Major Publications

Book

• Aristocrats and Statehood in Western Iberia, 300-600 CE. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2017.
• Rome and Byzantium in the Visigothic Kingdom: Beyond imitatio imperii, ed. Damián Fernández, Molly Lester, and Jamie Wood. Late Antique and Early Medieval Iberia. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2023.

Articles/Book Chapters

• “Reputable Slaves and Visigothic Law.” In Legal Pluralism and Social Change in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages. A Conference in Honor of John Haldon, eds. Wolfram Brandes, Helmut Reimitz and Jack Tannous. Recht im ersten Jahrtausend, 337, pp. 229-248. Frankfurt am Main: Vittorio Klostermann Verlag, 2024.
• “Capitalhood in the Visigothic Kingdom.” In Rome, Byzantium, and the Visigothic Kingdom of Toledo: Beyond Imitatio Imperii, eds. Damián Fernández, Molly Lester, and Jamie Wood. Late Antique and Early Medieval Iberia, 151–177. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2023.
• “Testators and the Visigothic State: A ‘From the Ground Up’ Approach to Inheritance Law.” Al-Masāq. Journal of the Medieval Mediterranean2 (2023): 364-387.
• “Estatus y desigualdad en el reino visigodo: algunas observaciones sobre esclavitud, economía y reputación social”. In Desigualdades Antiguas. Economía, Cultura y Sociedad en el Oriente Medio y en el Mediterráneo, eds. Marcelo Campagno, Julián Gallego, Carlos García Mac Gaw, and Richard Payne, 215-231. Barcelona; Buenos Aires: Miño y Dávila Editores, 2023.
• “El sistema tributario visigodo y los documentos de San Martín de Asán.” In Nouvelles chartes visigothiques du monastère pyrénéen d’Asán, eds. Céline Martin and Juan José Larrea, 105-123. Bordeaux: Ausonius, 2021.
• “Trial Witnesses, Social Hierarchies, and State Building in the Visigothic Kingdom of Toledo.” Early Medieval Europe 28.4 (2020): 509-531.
• "Transformaciones institucionales y liderazgo cívico en la Hispania post-imperial." In Urban Transformations in the Late Antique West: Monuments, Materials, and Models, eds. Carneiro, André, Neil Christie, and Pilar Diarte-Blasco, 259-278. Coimbra: University of Coimbra Press, 2020.
• "Desigualdad Económica, Propiedad Rural y Cultural Material en la Antigüedad Tardía: El Caso de la Península Ibérica (Siglos IV-VII)." In Capital, deuda, y desigualdad: Distribuciones de lariqueza en el Mediterráneo Antiguo, ed. M. Campagno, J. Gallego, and C. García Mac Graw, 173-193. Buenos Aires: Miño y Dávila Editores, 2017.
• "Taxation, Landownership, and the Infrastructural Power of the Visigothic State." In Infrastructural and Despotic Powers in Ancient States, eds. C. Ando and S. Richardson. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2017.
• "Property, Social Status, and Church Building in Visigothic Iberia." Journal of Late Antiquity 9.2 (2016): 512-541.
• "Persuading the Powerful in Post-Roman Iberia: King Euric, Local Powers, and the Formation of a State Paradigm." In Motions of Late Antiquity: Essays on Religion, Politics, and Society in Honor of Peter Brown, ed. H. Reimitz and J. Kreiner, 107-128. Turnhout: Brepols, 2016.
• "City and Countryside in Late Antique Iberia." Antiquité Tardive 21 (2013): 233-241.

Teaching Interests

I teach a wide range of survey and upper division courses in ancient history, from the hellenistic to the early medieval periods. My courses are heavily based on primary source analysis and an understanding of the specific problems raised by ancient sources for historical reconstruction. My graduate teaching focuses on the relationship between historical themes (such as state, aristocracy, and political legitimacy) and social/cultural theory.

Courses Taught

• HIST 110 History of the Western World I: Problems in the Human Past
• HIST 170 World History I: Problems in the Human Past
• HIST 302 The Age of Alexander the Great
• HIST 303 History of Ancient Rome
• HIST 304 The Fall of Rome and Late Antiquity
• HIST 305 Europe in the Early Middle Ages
• HIST 493 Undergraduate Independent Study
• HIST 610 States, Aristocracies, and Ruling Elites and History and Theory
• HIST 710: Research Seminar: Rebellion
• HIST 736: Latin for Historians
• HIST 736 Graduate Independent Study