My research is an anthropological study of Jewish heritage and tourism sites in contemporary Spain. Rather than focusing on narratives about Sephardic Jewish heritage, I place material culture itself at the center: what material objects and their absence do at these sites, and how people interact with this material culture. Through multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork, combining participant observation, interviews, and analysis of material culture, I ask: how is this heritage made materially present at these sites, by whom, and for whom, where so few remains survived?

To address this, I draw on three theoretical perspectives: material culture theory, critical heritage studies, and theories of material presence and absence. My research focuses on three main areas: the interfaith material presence of sites, specifically where synagogues became churches and turned into heritage sites today; the active production of new Sephardic material culture, such as monuments, signage, and souvenirs; and the question of who claims this heritage as their own, as part of Spanish national identity, as part of Jewish diasporic identity, or as part of Jewish religious and cultural tradition. By doing so, this research contributes to critical heritage studies and to anthropological understandings of absence, materiality, and belonging.