Roberto José
González Zalacain

He holds a Degree in History from the University of La Laguna (2002); a PhD in Medieval History from the University of La Laguna (2009); a Degree in Social and Cultural Anthropology from the UNED (2013); a University Specialist Diploma in Archival Studies from the UNED–Fundación Carlos de Amberes (2009); and a Master’s Degree in Hispanic Literatures — Basque, Catalan and Galician — in the European Context. He is the author of the doctoral thesis La familia en Castilla en la Baja Edad Media: violencia y conflicto, supervised by Eduardo Aznar Vallejo, which received the grade of Sobresaliente Cum Laude. The thesis was awarded the Extraordinary Doctoral Prize of the University of La Laguna and was also honoured by the Congress of Deputies of Spain in 2010. It was published by that same institution in 2013. His professional career has been linked to research and teaching in the field of history. He has held predoctoral and postdoctoral fellowships at the University of La Laguna (ULL) and the University of the Basque Country (EHU), respectively, and has worked as a contracted researcher on several nationally funded research projects. He has been a permanent secondary-school teacher in the Canary Islands public education system, specialising in Geography and History, as well as a lecturer at the International University of La Rioja (UNIR) and a Professor-Tutor at the UNED Associated Centre in Tenerife. His professional profile also includes technical work in archival cataloguing and in the management, design and implementation of scientific, technical and cultural activities. He is a member of the research groups Castilla y el Mar en la Baja Edad Media (ULL), GIEM (UNMdP), La sociedad en la corona de Castilla en la Baja Edad Media (UNED), as well as Grupo de Innovación para la Docencia en Historia (GINDISH) (UNED). He is also a member of the Instituto de Estudios Medievales y Renacentistas of the University of La Laguna, the Instituto de Estudios Canarios — of which he has been director since 2023 —, an associate researcher at the Instituto de Estudos Medievais of Universidade Nova de Lisboa, a collaborating researcher at CITCEM of Universidade do Porto, and a member of the GIS d’Histoire Maritime. He has participated as a researcher in several national and international research projects and has coordinated a number of Digital Humanities projects, including the recently directed Project Cordican: Transcription and Digital Edition of Texts for the Study of the Canary Islands’ Contribution to Atlantic History in the First Globalisation (ProID2020010097). He has also co-directed, together with Eduardo Aznar Vallejo, the project The Sea as Frontier: Legal Transgressions in the Late Medieval Atlantic (PGC2018-095719-B-I00). He is the author of several monographs, among which, in addition to the book resulting from his doctoral thesis, the following titles may be highlighted: El perdón real en Castilla en la Baja Edad Media (2013) and Familia y sociedad en Tenerife a raíz de la conquista (2005). He is also the author of numerous scientific articles and book chapters published in prestigious national and international publications. His research has developed around several thematic areas: the family in late medieval Castile, with particular attention to conflicts within the household; the late medieval maritime world and the process of colonisation of the Canary Islands following their incorporation into the Castilian Crown; conflict and violence in late medieval Castile; the organisation of family archives; Digital Humanities; and the teaching of History at secondary-school level.