Allison Bocchino is a doctoral candidate in the Department of History at the University of California, Santa Barbara under the supervision of Prof. Debra Blumenthal. Her dissertation, “Charity, Jewish Identity and Survival in the Late Medieval Crown of Aragon,” examines Jewish charitable practices and institutions in the late fourteenth and first half of the fifteenth centuries at a moment when Jews were under increased pressure to convert following the anti-Jewish riots of 1391 and the Disputation of Tortosa, focusing on the cities of Zaragoza, Jaca, and Girona. She examines how charity was used to reinforce communal boundaries and to preserve Jewish cultural practices. Her dissertation also explores the differences between the Jewish communities of Catalonia and Aragon as exemplified by their different patterns of charity.