Visiting History Professor Authors Article in Spanish Edited Volume Leticia Fernández-Fontecha’s article, published in “Dibujos para una guerra 1936-39,” examines children’s drawings from the Spanish Civil War.

By Brian Laubscher
February 11, 2026

Leticia Fernández-Fontecha, visiting assistant professor of history at Washington and Lee University, recently published an article in the edited volume “Dibujos para una guerra 1936-39,” published by Ministerio de Política Territorial y Memoria Democrática (the Spanish Ministry of Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory).

Fernández-Fontecha’s article, titled “Dibujar la guerra: archivo visual infantil y el proyecto pedagógico de Regina Lago,” translates to “Drawing the War: Children’s Visual Archive and Regina Lago’s Pedagogical Project” in English. The article examines children’s drawings from the Spanish Civil War as a visual archive and situates them within the pedagogical project developed by Spanish psychologist Regina Lago. It engages with questions of childhood, visual culture and education in contexts of conflict. The volume was published to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Spain’s democratic transition, situating the research within a broader framework of public reflection on democracy and historical memory.

“Dibujos para una guerra 1936-39” is part of a publicly accessible digital initiative associated with the 50th anniversary commemorations, aimed at disseminating historical research beyond academic audiences. It is intended for use in education and public history contexts and contributes to interdisciplinary research on democratic memory, childhood and visual testimony.

Fernández-Fontecha is in her second year as a visiting member of the W&L faculty. Her research is centered around the history of pain, childhood and the medical humanities, and she is currently developing a new project on infancy and early life in medical history. Fernández-Fontecha earned a Bachelor of Arts in art history from Complutense University of Madrid (Spain), a Master of Arts in contemporary art and visual culture from the Autonomous University of Madrid (Spain), a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing from the University of Iowa and a Ph.D. in history from the University of Greenwich (U.K.).

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