Middle East Medievalists Lifetime Achievement Award in Recognition of Prof. Fierro’s Scholarship

By Aurora Gonzalez Artigao

Someone once said that “Maribel has found employment for half of the Arabists in Spain.” This statement is probably not all that far off the mark, since she really believes in the forthcoming generation of scholars, and in the importance of researching and transmitting knowledge to society at large.

Maribel is extremely engaged with her students and corrects even the commas of a draft, if necessary, which indicates how closely she reads those texts. She is patient and curious, too, with a remarkable ability to listen and understand. Her way of mentoring is clear and assertive, respectful of the student’s interests, but adding her outstanding wisdom and experience in the field. With Maribel as an instructor, the PhD student learns much more than complicated structures of power, ideology, law, and knowledge that were developed in the Islamic West during the Middle Ages. There is also crucial learning regarding human quality in the academic world, an aspect sometimes misunderstood, but extremely relevant. Maribel promotes solidarity, generosity, and, in essence, the same treatment that she gives.

Her competence in attracting funding and accomplishing significant projects has benefited a lot of junior researchers who had the chance of learning in one of the most important research centres of Spain, the CSIC. Maribel is aware of unfairness and limitations related to the current academic system, and mainly how it affects people at different levels of their careers. Her help to junior researchers is crucial so the system itself and the production of knowledge also might improve. Maribel's strengths as an instructor are thus her unruly curiosity, her talent to deal with people but, especially, her generosity.