An Interdisciplinary Pilgrimage In Spain

Not every summer starts in Spain, but for several Saint Anselm students and faculty it began in Burgos and León conducting interdisciplinary digital humanities research on the Camino de Santiago. With multiple routes throughout southwestern Europe, the Camino is a renowned religious pilgrimage that ends in Santiago, Spain where Saint James, the apostle, is said to be buried.

Spearheaded by Professor Sean Perrone, Ph.D., this three-semester project “Studying Pilgrimage to Santiago with Digital Tools” aims to bring history to life using paleography (historical handwriting transcription) to identify past and present Camino infrastructure with texts from the 15^th through 18^th centuries, and geographic information systems (GIS) to digitally map the medieval landmarks. Computer ScienceProfessor Adam Albina, Ph.D. and SpanishProfessor Lourdes Jiménez, Ph.D. aided the history professor with their technological and linguistic expertise, and ahead of the trip, the student-faculty research group spent the academic year working semiweekly to transcribe manuscripts and plot coordinates with GIS.

“One goal of the interdisciplinary project is to bring together three college-wide learning outcomes — historical reasoning, quantitative reasoning, and intermediate foreign language — to help students connect different aspects of their liberal arts core curriculum and their major fields of study to larger humanistic research questions concerning pilgrimage,” says Perrone. Over the years, various students have studied the Camino, but this is the first time the research has resulted in a trip abroad and been conducted using primarily non-English sources.

“The reality of what I experienced [in Spain]. . . was far more beautiful, enlightening, and inspiring than simply learning, talking, and seeing,” recalls History and Secondary Education major Nicola Forth ’28.

Across Burgos and León, the group toured depositories where documents are stored, viewed some of the cities’ original medieval charters, and transcribed texts within five different archives. For Perrone, the most memorable part of the trip was visiting a Benedictine monastery in León that has operated as a hostel for Camino pilgrims since the Middle Ages — an experience arranged by a local professor.

“We spent four hours learning about the convent and transcribing its records,” says Perrone. “We even attended divine hours in the chapel! It was really special to spend time with another community of Benedictines.”

Through collaboration with archivists, historians, and paleography experts, the group further explored Spanish culture, history, and the language’s evolution, especially when it came to hands-on transcription.

Having developed considerably since the 1500s, medieval spellings, letters, and abbreviations are substantially harder to understand than modern Spanish. While in Burgos, Forth found a word on a document she didn’t recognize. After inquiring with peers and eventually the professional staff, even the head archivist was unable to decipher Forth’s mystery term, illustrating just how close Saint Anselm students are to history’s unanswered questions.

As the days passed, the group found themselves increasingly able to interpret complex documents. A professional archivist even complimented Computer Science major Kaitlin McDonough ’27 on her transcription accuracy.

“Our confidence grew,” says McDonough on the group’s matured paleography skills. “It made me feel proud of myself and my classmates. I don’t think I would’ve ever known some of them without this trip.” The project’s interdepartmental nature introduced McDonough to students and professors she might not have crossed paths with.

Beyond its educational value, the trip carried an unexpected spiritual aspect for Jiménez.

“The opportunity to engage directly with manuscripts, landscapes, and communities linked to the Camino transformed our research into something far more meaningful: a journey of discovery that bridged scholarship, history, art, and human experience,” says Jiménez, a pilgrim of the Camino herself. She believes that venturing into the archives allowed the group to truly connect with the centuries-old voices they’d spent semesters studying.

When they weren’t transcribing, the group used global positioning systems (GPS) to pinpoint former and existing rest facilities along the Camino. Though their intention was to gather coordinates for GIS logging, GPS geolocating led them to breathtaking buildings, hospitals, and churches where they learned about everything from the deliberate placement of stained-glass windows to the significance of their rich color palette.

“Watching them stand in awe of the beautiful cathedrals and monasteries we visited, and seeing their curiosity deepen as they connected historical records with the physical places around them, was remarkable,” says Albina, who mentors the project’s computer science dimension. Given historical documents’ notoriously wavering precision, developing a relational database to store their findings has been a substantial challenge for the professor.

“In some cases, we know the exact date; in others, only the year, century, or season,” he says. “Preserving this varying granularity of temporal information requires a flexible database design capable of representing time at multiple levels of precision without sacrificing historical accuracy.” More than just recording history in Spain, the group experienced it through a different way of life.

“This trip allowed me to dually experience diverse culture and look into a possible future profession [in archival research],” says History major Maggie Bishop ’29. “I was able to improve my Spanish by talking with real locals whether they were a waiter or a scholar.”

Spanish and Secondary Education major Erin O’Farrell ’29 can’t help but agree.

“There was no time to second guess, hesitate, or feel unsure. I just had to let the language flow.” Being the only Spanish major, O’Farrell frequently translated for her classmates. She believes having two weeks of native speaker interaction was deeply beneficial to her overall comprehension.

“One of my favorite parts of this project is that we all get to learn from and teach each other,” says Psychology major Sophia Xenakis ’27, who is minoring in history. Though computer science isn’t her strong suit, Xenakis says that her peers and Albina found ways to make it fun. She never imagined it could pair so seamlessly with Spanish and history.

Among other adventures in cuisine, art, and history, the group walked a section of the Camino’s most famous route, The French Way. They met pilgrims from around the world, listened to their stories, and even wished them well with a “¡Buen Camino!”

Seeing real pilgrims left Computer Science and Data Science and Analytics major Brooke Tardugno ’27 inspired to return and complete the pilgrimage herself one day.

“Every place seemed to tell another story,” says Tardugno. “I know [this project] will continue to shape both my academic interests and perspective. It was incredible to experience history outside of a classroom.”

This research was made possible by the Beulah Kahler College Trust, a foundation which distributes annual grants to liberal arts colleges in New Hampshire, Florida, Ohio, and Texas that champion students in pursuit of degrees in the arts, humanities, sciences, and social sciences. Additional museum visit funding was allocated by Saint Anselm’s John A. Lynch Faculty/Student Project Fund, a resource that empowers faculty-student mentorship and supports cocurricular projects, course-related trips, and regional professional conferences.