Meritxell Ferrer is a historian and archaeologist. Her research specializes in the archaeology of the Mediterranean during the Iron Age -mainly Greek and Phoenician colonization in the western Mediterranean-. Her interests encompass themes such as postcolonial perspectives, ancient mobilities and connections, power and gender dynamics constructed and represented through ritual and daily practices, and contemporary uses of the past.

After completing her PhD in History from UPF in 2012, for which she was awarded an extraordinary doctoral prize, she was Beatriu de Pinós-Marie Curie Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Stanford University’s Classics Department and Archaeology Center (2013-2015). In 2015 she joined the Department of Humanities at UPF as postdoctoral research fellow, first as Beatriu de Pinós-Marie Curie (2015-2017) and, currently, as Juan de la Cierva (Spanish Ministry of Science).

At UPF she is a member of the Research Unit of Social and Gender Archaeology. This Research Unit brings together UPF researchers interested in developing a better understanding of contact zones, mobility, and connections through the study of material culture. This aim is achieved through the analysis of everyday material culture as a critical element in the construction of social identities and power and gender dynamics, as well as the study of bodies (and the self) in colonial or multiethnic spaces. This research has a comparative focus, through various periods and geographies: the Ancient Mediterranean — particularly the Iberian peninsula (the region of Empúries, Ibiza, and Malaga bay), western Sicily, and Egypt (this research is largely undertaken by researchers associated with Mediterranean Archaeology Research Group: Connections, Materialities and Scripture-GRACME) — and modern colonial spaces, mainly the Mariana Islands (Guam) from the 17th to the 19th century and the Islamic-Christian Ethiopian frontier from the 10th to the 15th century (this research is mainly done by researchers associated with Colonialism, Gender and Materialities Resarch Group-CGyM).