Professor of Romance Philology at the University of Santiago de Compostela since 2000, she has been head of the body of professors since 2015. Her doctoral dissertation, discussed in 1993, was entitled “A muller na lírica galego-portuguesa: análise da súa denominacións” and was concerned with women in the Middle Ages. Revised and updated, it was published in book form as “As mulleres nas cantigas medievais”.
She began her career researching into Romance lexicography, then later moved on to different aspects of medieval literature such as the narrative tradition, the philological work of the humanist Angelo Colocci and, more especially, Galician-Portuguese lyric poetry, studying the themes, the different typologies (poems in dialogue form, tensos, partimens) and the lexicon employed in the cancioneiros always against the background of the wider Romance tradition. The area of research which began with her dissertation on women in medieval literature has been continued over time and has led to the publication of studies into different aspects such as the symbolism of women’s clothing in lyric poetry, women’s voice in the cantiga de amigo, the famous “soldadeira” Maria Balteira, and the first European female vernacular author, Marie de France.
Her work has been accepted by such prestigious publishers as the University of Pennsylvania Press (“Feminine Voices in the Galician-Portuguese Cantigas de amigo”, in Medieval Woman’s Song: Cross Cultural Approaches), Ashgate, Edizioni del Galluzzo (Sismel), Edizioni dell’Orso, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, and by such journals as the Bulletin of Hispanic Studies, Cultura Neolatina, Medioevo Romanzo, Revue des Langues Romanes.
She has been an editor for several volumes published by USC as well as by other important publishers (Edizioni del Galluzzo, Edizioni dell’Orso), and has organized several international scholarly meetings: In marsupiis peregrinorum. Circulación de textos e imágenes alrededor del Camino de Santiago en la Edad Media, VII Meeting of the European Doctorate in Romance Philology (24-28 March, 2008), and the International Colloquium on Parodia y debate metaliterarios en la Edad Media, III Thematic Meeting of the Asociación Hispánica de Literatura Medieval (7-8 November, 2012).
Since 1994, when she joined the university, she has constantly been a member of both state- and private-funded research projects. She has also been Principle Investigator for an Acción Complementaria and for the following projects: “Os xéneros dialogados na lírica galego-portuguesa” (financed by the Galician Regional Government), “El debate metaliterario en la lírica románica medieval (Ministry of Science and Innovation) and, at present, “Voces de mujeres en la Edad Media: entre realidad y ficción” (Ministry of the Economy and Competitivity). Moreover she is the coordinator of the project “Prosa literaria medieval galega”, part of the wider project “Arquivo Galicia Medieval” financed by the “Centro Ramón Piñeiro para a Investigación en Humanidades” in Santiago de Compostela.