Clik here to view.
Highlights from Spain… as summer vacation comes to an end :(
I realized I haven’t yet written a post for the month of July, and the fact that August is only days away is a bit terrifying! I must say, however, that I have had a nice balance of “work” and vacation...
View ArticleClik here to view.
“Fun” with Academic Publishing: Wordle, Coffee, and Pedagogy
As any professor, graduate student, or postdoc knows, publishing an article in an academic journal is not a particularly enjoyable process… and it can take months, if not years, to see your article in...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Santa Muerte, the Alluring and Controversial Folk Saint of Death
While the Virgin of Guadalupe is perhaps the most iconic and ubiquitous of Mexican Catholic imagery, Santa Muerte, or Saint Death, is quickly becoming a powerful cultural force herself. Though Santa...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Maternity and Madrid: Gendered Spaces in La rampa (1917)
I have officially decided that September is the fastest-moving, shortest month of the (academic) year. It flies by quicker than winter break. One day you are rather calmly introducing the course...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Posters and Propaganda from the Spanish Civil War (1936-39)
A few weeks ago one of my friends passed on a link to these Spanish Civil War posters, which were published over at Retronaut, “The Photographic Time Machine.” I had just finished teaching a unit on...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Memory of War in Madrid
I recently came across the Spanish blog and online magazine Yorokobu, a Madrid-based publication that discusses historical events and narratives not typically featured in traditional media. According...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Winter Break in the Southwest: Mission San Xavier del Bac
This year over Winter Break I decided it would be smart to spend a few weeks in warmer weather – last year’s frigid Iowa winter made for a rather tiring “Spring” semester. We decided to visit Tucson,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Miguel de Cervantes: An internet sensation?
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (1547-1616) has been in the news a lot lately… considering he lived over four centuries ago! First, in late January, Spanish researches reported unearthing a coffin in the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Women of the Second Republic (Spain 1931-39)
While I was in Spain last summer, I was able to attend the “Feria del libro” (Book Fair) that takes place annually in Madrid’s central park, El Retiro. According to the Feria del Libro’s (FLM) website,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Thirteen Roses and Spanish Cinema’s Celebration of Motherhood
This summer I was once again able to spend a few weeks in Spain, for both work and fun. I presented a paper on the 2007 Spanish film, Las 13 Rosas (The 13 Roses) at a conference on Spanish and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Following the Footsteps of a Literary Hero: Personal Histories of Place
This summer I had several projects to work on, including an article on urban Madrid, two new syllabi to prepare, and a conference presentation in Salamanca on the film Las 13 Rosas. But I also took on...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Francisco de Goya: The Enigma of the Black Paintings
This semester at Kansas State I am teaching a survey course on Spanish Civilization and Culture. While it is certainly requiring me to brush up on history and politics (from prehistoric times to the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Picasso’s “Guernica” and Aleixandre’s “Oda”: The Spanish Civil War in Art and...
One of my favorite things to do when creating lesson plans and homework assignments is to find visuals that evoke the same themes or feelings as the literary text. When teaching poetry for example, I...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Teaching Spanish America: From the Conquest to Contemporary Film
This semester at Kansas State I’m teaching a 500-level Spanish American Literature survey course, and I decided to experiment a bit with the way I structured the content. Survey-style courses are...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Photography and the Chromatic Language of Cristina García’s Dreaming in Cuban
With the Obamas’ recent trip to Cuba (March 2016), the Caribbean island has been appearing frequently across social media and in a variety of US news outlets – from the New York Times to Buzzfeed....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Discovering “The Soul of Spain”… in Kansas!
Since my hectic, teaching-heavy spring semester is finally over, I now have some time to start easing back into a few of my research projects. But first, of course, I needed some time to relax and not...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Summer in Mexico: Monuments, Murals, and Mole, oh my!
It’s summer vacation! My third since starting this blog… And while the past two summers I traveled to Spain primarily for professional reasons (to present at conferences), I also made sure to plan my...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Women and the Avant-garde: Maruja Mallo’s “Verbenas” (Carnivals)
Lately I’ve been returning to the art and literature of the Spanish Avant-garde – the time period that sparked my interest in studying Spanish literary, art, and cultural history more in depth (roughly...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Walking Around Scarecrows and Scarefishes: Surrealist Angst in Maruja Mallo...
One of the things I love about teaching and analyzing Spanish literature is that each time I (re)read a text for a new class or course, I end up interpreting it differently depending on what else I...
View ArticleClik here to view.
“Celebración Cervantina / Cervantes Celebration” at K-State
2016 – This year marks the 400th anniversary of the deaths of two extremely influential literary figures: renowned English playwright William Shakespeare and celebrated Spanish playwright and novelist...
View Article
