The Llerena City Council will hold a solemn plenary session on May 30 in which the academic María Jesús Viguera Molins, from Llerena by adoption and Doctor Honoris Causa from the University of Granada, will receive the diploma and insignia that accredit her as ‘Adopted Daughter of Llerena’ . The Municipal Corporation has also decided to propose her as a candidate to receive the Medal of Extremadura.
Viguera Molins, although she is a native of El Ferrol, feels deeply linked to Extremadura and specifically, in Llerena where “by her express wish” the Royal Academy of Extremadura of Arts and Letters held the solemn public session in which she took possession of her place in said entity as a Full Academician.
María Jesús is Professor of Arab and Islamic Studies at the Complutense University of Madrid, whose department she has directed for 12 years and from which she founded the magazine ‘Anaquel de Estudios Arabes’, while since 2015 and after her retirement she is currently professor emeritus in said university. Viguera belongs to numerous institutions and associations and to more than twenty editorial committees of magazines related to her specialty.
The professor has published 55 books, editions, translations and collective books, among them volumes VIII-1, 2, 3 and 4 of the History of Spain by Menéndez Pidal. It contains some 257 articles and book chapters on various aspects of the History of Al-Andalus and the Maghreb, specifically the political history of the taifa periods, social, religious and cultural components of Andalusia.