Francisco Cintron
Francisco Cintron ’18, an Honors Tutorial College History major, received a Fulbright U.S. Student Program fellowship for a year of study in Spain.
The award provides a full year of funding for graduating college seniors to conduct research outside of the United States. Fulbright U.S. Student Program fellowships are awarded annually based on a nationally competitive application process.
Cintron will spend 2018-19 in Spain, where he will pursue a research project titled “The Colección Canónica Hispana in Al-Andalus: Law and Society among Mozarabs.”
“I propose to analyze the legal system of local Christians residing in Muslim Spain during the 8th to 11th centuries,” Cintron said. “Arab-Muslim rulers granted local Christians autonomy from Islamic law in the management of their internal affairs. By analyzing contemporary renditions of the pre-Islamic Visigothic legal codes archived in Spain’s national library, I hope to explore how Christians conceived of and managed their internal judicial affairs in the dual context of Muslim rule and Visigothic law.”
In addition to being an HTC History major, Cintron graduates with a minor in Classical Civilization and a Certificate in Law, Justice & Culture.
Cintron is currently completing his senior thesis under the supervision of Dr. Kevin Uhalde, Associate Professor of History at Ohio University. Titled “’Immersed in the Snares of Apostasy’: Martyrdom and Dissent in Early Al-Andalus,” Cintron’s thesis makes use of language skills in Spanish and Latin and coursework in medieval law, religion, and society to analyze the role of the Islamic legal system in the voluntary martyrdoms of 52 Christians during the 850s.
As a History major, Cintron has taken advantage of a number of study abroad opportunities that provided him with important experiences on which to draw during his research year abroad. He spent his 2017 spring break in Italy as part of one of the History Department’s courses, Dr. Jaclyn Maxwell’s HIST 4536 Eternal Rome: Power and Piety. During the following summer, Cintron researched Visigothic history in the Biblioteca Nacional in Madrid, Spain and then participated in an intensive seminar on the beginnings of Islamic Spain in Córdoba, Spain. His time abroad was made possible in part by a number of History Department scholarships, fellowships, and grants.
Asked about his plans for the year after his Fulbright, Cintron said, “I plan to publish the results of my research from my Fulbright year in a scholarly journal, and to begin a graduate degree that allows me to combine my interests in the fields of history as well as law and society studies.”
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