SCSC 2008: Nykwest on Women’s Education

Another very interesting paper I saw in St. Louis was Rebecca C. Nykwest, a PhD candidate at UC Irvine, presenting “The Colegio de Donzellas Nobles and the Cultural Politcs of Women’s Education in Sixteenth-Century Toledo.” The paper was about the foundation of the girls’ school by Archbishop Siliceo’s, made apparently with primary concern for elevating the status of Old Christian girls and making them more valuable in the marriage market during the purity of blood controversies in the 16th and early 17th centuries. It was a preview of Nykwest’s dissertation, “Purity of Blood and the Cultural Politics of Women’s Education in Sixteenth-Century Toledo.” She has really found a lot of interesting material on a hard-to-research topic.