Almudena Blasco Vallés

Madrid 1975. She is a professor at the École Polytechnique in Paris and an exhibition curator. She is also a professor of Medieval History at the Autonomous University of Barcelona and a member of the Institute of Medieval Studies. With a PhD in Medieval History, she wrote her thesis on Gaston IV, Viscount of Béarn (1090-1130), analyzing the character and his wife, Talèsa of Aragon, as well as the sociopolitical and cultural circumstances of the time. She has conducted studies on the Béarn dynasty and its relationship with the kings of Aragon, with a special interest in ideological and technical transfers in the conquest of the Ebro valley during the first decades of the 12th century. Her studies are linked to the evolution of noble families in Occitania throughout the 13th and 14th centuries, with particular attention to their involvement in the Cathar conflict. A part of her Anthropology and History studies took place at the EHESS in Paris, where she works on research into the figure of Pèir de Marca.