Research Affiliate
I am a Fullbright visiting scholar at the University of Miami (USA) and a Margarita Salas postdoctoral fellow affiliated with the School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography at the University of Oxford (UK) and ISOR-Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona (Spain).
I wrote a multi-awarded PhD dissertation at the University of St Andrews/ Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona (joint) exploring the role of Evangelical Pentecostal Christianity in reshaping the worldviews, values, gender ideals, sociability patterns and notions of identity among Spanish/Romani Gitanos. My PhD received funding from the Spanish Government's national funding (FPI) programme, the Banco Sabadell Foundation and the Ford Foundation/Apadrina la Ciencia, as well as extensive academic recognition. Prizes awarded to my PhD dissertation include the Best PhD Dissertation Award by the Spanish Society for the Study of Religious Sciences, a UK doctoral Research award (competition for junior academics) and the David Riches Medal for Postgraduate Research by the Ladislav Holy Memorial Trust at the University of St. Andrews. Academic papers building upon my dissertation work received the Arthur Maurice Hocart Prize by the Royal Anthropological Institute, the Marian Madison Young Scholars' Prize in Romani Studies by the Gypsy Lore Society and the Peter B. Clarke Memorial Essay Prize by SOCREL/BSA, among other awards.
My first postdoctoral research received two research grants, one from the Economic and Social Research Council (UK government) at the University of St Andrews and the other from the EU Next Generation/Margarita Salas Programme (Spanish Government) at the University of Oxford/ISOR-UAB. The project focused on Gitanos' political and religious experiences during the COVID-19 global pandemic and involved the training of Gitano interlocutors in producing academic knowledge. My innovative approach to producing collaborative knowledge with and for Gitano communities was further recognised through a British Academy Knowledge Frontiers grant to pursue research on collaborative methodologies with Pentecostal Gitano musicians.
My second ongoing postdoctoral project aims to investigate the diffusion of the Prosperity Gospel among Latin American immigrants in Madrid (Spain) and Miami (USA). The project will contribute to advancing studies on migration, borders, and the social dynamics of money.
Selected Publications
Montañés Jimenez, A (Forthcoming). “Christian approaches to the Gitano past: Books, Storytelling, and the emergence of a Pentecostal historical consciousness”. History and Anthropology.
Montañés Jimenez, A (2025). “Evangelical Gitanos are a good catch”: Masculinity, Churches, and Roneos in Spain. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute. 31(3), September 2025.
Montañés Jimenez, A (2024). Engaging with social media to spread the gospel in pandemic times: Gitanos, Christianity and the digital world. Special Issue on “Religious Minorities in the Digital Age”, Journal of Religion in Europe, 17 (4).
Montañés Jimenez, A (2024). Migrant Pentecostalism and the rise of Latin-American Street Preachers in Barcelona. Journal of Contemporary Religion, 39 (2) 1-18.
Montañés Jimenez, A and Demetrio Gómez Ávila. (2024). ‘Bridging academia and Romani activism in the age of COVID-19’. In M. Fotta and P. Gay y Blasco (eds), Ethnographic Methods in Gypsy, Roma and Traveller Research: Lessons from a Time of Crisis. Bristol: Bristol University Press, pp 38-60.
Montañés Jimenez, A. with Gregorio Carmona (2023). 'COVID-19 is a Trial from God'. Gitanos, Pentecostal Imaginaries and Compliance. In P. Gay y Blasco and M. Fotta (eds), Romani Chronicles of COVID-19: Testimonies of Harm and Resilience. Oxford: Berghan Books, pp 80-89.
Montañés Jimenez, A. (2022). Death, Commemoration and Grief in the Age of COVID-19: The Case of Christian Pentecostal Gitanos in Spain, Anthropology Now, 14:1-2, 89-101.
