Research

Photo by Clark Geddie

Research Philosophy

My primary research interests span over two geographical areas during the same period. Concerning Spain I study the relation between society and superstition in the Early Modern period as a way of approaching a particular corpus of practices and the manner in which they were presented in literary texts. My aim is to present the portrait of the witch and the sorceress in their social context and to emphasize their marginal condition. In relation to colonial literature I study the role that the shifting concept of idolatry played in the spiritual and territorial conquest of the Americas, in particular in colonial Mexico, as well as its relation to the subsequent construction of imperial power and hegemony. It examine the theological and practical conquest of the New World, the creation of otherness, and the emergence of indigenous resistance under the auspices of religion in an attempt to broaden our understanding of the process of colonization as conditioned by the particular moment in European history (religious schism) and the previous experience with Judaism and Islam in Spain.

Teaching Interests

I am also interested in the role of theater in the expansion of the Spanish empire, early modern Spanish literature, transatlantic issues in literature, representations of witchcraft and sorcery in literature, Latin American colonial culture and literature, idolatry in colonial Latin America and comparative literature.

Publications

Books

Magia, hechicería y brujería: Entre La Celestina y Cervantes (under contract) Editorial Renacimiento, Seville, Spain.

Articles

(under review) “El cuerpo sin marca en el Tuzaní de la Alpujarra”

(under review) “La conversión como experimento de colonización: Fray Hernando de Talavera y Zumárraga”

(under review) "The image of a miracle: The Virgin of Guadalupe and the context of the apparitions"

“Las Camachas cervantinas: El embrujo de Andalucía desafía a las instituciones”, Estudios sobre Patrimonio literario andaluz, Ed. Antonio A. Gómez Yebra, 2008, 11-25.

“Construir un imperio a partir de Andalucía: Fray Hernando de Talavera, primer arzobispo de Granada y sus ecos en Nueva España” Patrimonio literario andaluz, Ed. Antonio A. Gómez Yebra, Vol. 2, 2007, 17-36.

Encyclopedia Entries

“Inquisition and the Hispanic World”, World Literature in Spanish: An Encyclopedia, Ed. Maureen Ihrie and Salvador Oropesa (Accepted)

“Inquisition and literature”, World Literature in Spanish: An Encyclopedia, Ed. Maureen Ihrie and Salvador Oropesa, (Accepted. Forthcoming in 2010)

Presentations

“El cuerpo sin marca en el Tuzaní de la Alpujarra”, Association for Hispanic Classical Theater. El Paso, Texas, March 6-8.

"The image of a miracle: The Virgin of Guadalupe and the context of the apparitions”, Symposium on Image and Illusion in Early Modern Spain. Duke University, Durham, October 2-3.

“El (H)amete de Toledo en el contexto de las expulsiones: Ecos a ambos lados del Atlántico”, Association for Hispanic Classical Theater. El Paso, Texas, March 6-8.

“Moors and Jews in the New World: La Conquista de Jerusalén”. LASA (Latin American Studies Association). Montreal, Canada, September 5-8.

“To Build a State: Othering as a tool of Nation Building in Early modern Spain”, 2006 Hawaii International Conference on Arts and Humanities. Honolulu, Hawaii, January 11-14.

“The idolatrous territories: Spain and the Indies at the time of the encounter," 2006 Hawaii International Conference on Arts and Humanities. Honolulu, Hawaii, January 11-14.

“Gods or idols?: Idolatry and conquest on both sides of the Atlantic” Graphsy: Graduate Portuguese and Hispanic Symposium. Georgetown University, October 28-29.

Grants

Technology partners for iPod project with the Instructional and Design Development Department

Hultquist Award (for first-year faculty): “Integration of iPod technology into the Language Learning Environment”

ATACC Software Grant: “Improving Linguistic Skills through Ipod Technology”

The John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute’s Renewed Mellon Grant for an Interdisciplinary Dissertation Working Group