I fell in love with the Spanish language in elementary school, and I have studied it ever since. In college, I spent time in Buenos Aires, Argentina and in Madrid, Spain. During my graduate studies, I discovered post-Franco Spanish literature, and that became the focus of my academic career. Teaching Spanish language classes helps me remember those moments when another language starts to make sense, when you really start to gain proficiency. It is exciting to see my students go through that process. In my upper level courses, I focus on twentieth and twenty-first century peninsular Spanish literature and film, especially focusing on issues of race and gender. Most of my students start out unfamiliar with these topics, or at least unfamiliar with the topics from a Spanish perspective. Together we discover how literature and film can represent –and misrepresent–culture.

I believe that learning Spanish is a gateway to other cultures for my students. Through my focus on the 5 Cs of language learning, communication, culture, connections, comparisons, and communities, I encourage my students to make connections to their other courses, their outside interests, and their communities. In my upper-level courses, I strive to create a student-centered, discussion-based classroom where together we engage with current issues facing Spain and the rest of the world.

Education

PhD, University of Texas 2004
MA, University of Kansas 1997
BA, Davidson College 1995

Honors & Awards

William Carrington Finch Award (2021)

Wilhelmina Cullen Robertson Endowed Professor (2019-present)

The 2008 Bill L. and Gerre D. Andrist Award for Hispanic Gender Studies for “Is Spain Still Spanish? Bigas Luna’s Yo soy la Juani.” 2008.

Affiliations

• MLA
• SCMLA
• ACTFL
• AILCFH
• ALCE SXXI

Most of my early publications and my book focus on the works of Lucía Etxebarria. In 1999, I discovered her first novel, Amor, curiosidad, Prozac y dudas, at a bookstore in Madrid, and from that point on, I have followed her career. I also investigate questions of gender and representation, especially the portrayal of motherhood, in other contemporary Spanish authors and directors. My more recent publications examine issues of reproductive decision making and infertility.

Book:

The Changing Face of Motherhood in Spain: The Social Construction of Motherhood in the Works of Lucía Etxebarria. Bucknell, PA: Bucknell University Press: 2016.

Journal articles:

“The Mother-Daughter Relationship in Gazpacho agridulce.” Co-written with Bailey Barlow, SU graduate 2023. Hispanic Journal 44.1 (2023): 98-118.

“Populism and Surrogacy in Spain.” Women’s Studies (December 2022): 1-21. Co-written with Dr. Katie Aha and Catherine Hiebel, SU graduate 2022. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00497878.2022.2147178.

“La adopción china en El alfabeto de los pájaros de Nuria Barrios.” ConSecuencias 2 (2021): 37-51. Co-written with Lizzeth Cepeda Lozano, SU graduate 2020. ejournals.bc.edu/index.php/consecuencias

“Left Behind: Cultural Assimilation and the Mother/Daughter Relationship in Najat El Hachmi’s La hija extranjera (2015).” Hispanófila 183 (June 2018): 351-365.

“Subversive Texts: MommyBlogs to Blog-Books in Spain.” Co-written with Lauren Fellers, SU graduate 2015. Hispanic Studies Review 2.2 (2017): 269-286.

“The Failed Quest-Romance: Lucía Etxebarria’s Nosotras que no somos como las demas”. Symposium: A Quarterly Journal in Modern Literatures 70.2 (Summer 2016): 80-89. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00397709.2016.1172000.

“Bigas Luna’s Cycle of Spanishness”. Hispanic Journal 35.2 (Fall 2014): 63-75.

“From Feminism to Post-Feminism: Acts of Violence in Alicia Giménez-Bartlett’s Ritos de muerte (1996)”. Co-written with Violeta Gómez. Monographic Review / Revista monográfica 28 (2012): 115-130.

“Mami que buena estas! Representations of the Immigrant Woman in I love you baby.” Letras femeninas 34.1 (Summer 2008): 217-229.

“Trauma, Violence and Pornography: Un mal año para Miki by Jose Ovejero.” Letras hispanas 5.1 (Spring 2008).

“The Postfeminist Question in Almudena Grandes’s Atlas de geografía humana.” Monographic Review/Revista Monográfica XXIII (Fall 2007): 93-105.

“Carmen de Icaza: Novela Rosa as Feminist Discourse?” Letras peninsulares 18.1 (Spring 2006): 99-108.

“Ser mujer hoy en dia: una entrevista con Esther Tusquets.” Confluencia 20.2 (Spring 2005): 214-20.

“Paloma Pedrero: el escape de los roles tradicionales de la mujer.” Romance Notes 43.3 (2003): 279-284.

Chapter in an edited volume:

“Las No-madres: The Commercialization and Medicalization of Infertility in Quién quiere ser madre.” Co-written with Bailey Barlow, SU graduate 2023. In Refiguring Motherhood Beyond Biology, edited by Valerie Renegar and Kirsti Cole, Routledge, 2023, pp. 94-107. DOI: 10.4324/9781003311799-10

“Isabel: Mito, madre y mujer. Exploration of the Cultural Role of Isabel.” In Mito e historia en la televisión y el cine español, edited by Christine Blackshaw Naberhaus, Albatros Hispanófila, 2019, pp. 55-75.

“Defining Mother’s Place in Barcelona: Women in Biutiful.” Gender in Spanish Urban Spaces. Eds. Debra Ochoa and Maria DiFrancesco. Palgrave McMillian, 2017: 185-208.

“Why We Are All in the Club: El club de las malas madres (2009).” The Changing Spanish Family: Essays on New Views in Literature, Cinema and Theater. Ed. Tiffany Trotman. Jefferson, NC: Macfarland Press, 2011. 9-23.

“The Changing Faces of Motherhood: Lucía Etxebarria’s Un milagro en equilibrio” (M)Othering the Nation: Constructing and Resisting National Allegories through the Maternal Body. Ed. Lisa Bernstein. London: Cambridge Scholars Press, 2008. 147-158.

“Sex, Drugs, and Violence in Lucía Etxebarria’s Amor, curiosidad, prozac y dudas.” Novels of the Contemporary Extreme. Ed. Alain-Philippe Durand. London: Continuum Publishing, 2006. 153-62.

Other publications:

Invited Book Review of Mother and Myth in Spanish Novels: Rewriting the Maternal Archetype in Symposium: A Quarterly Journal in Modern Literatures 66.4 (2012): 222-223.

The Mother-Daughter Relationship in Gazpacho Agridulce. Co-presented with Bailey Barlow (’23). Northeast Modern Language Association, Niagara Falls, NY, March 23-26, 2023.

La adopción internacional en La adopción de Daniela Féjerman. V Jornadas de la Asociación Internacional de Literatura y Cine Españoles Siglo XXI, Oviedo, Spain, July 12-15, 2022.

Surrogacy in Spain: the bioethical and feminist concerns. Part of a panel “Surrogacy in Spain” with Dr. Katie Aha and Catherine Hiebel (’22). XXIX Congreso Internacional de Literatura y Estudios Hispánicos, San Juan, Puerto Rico, March 8-10, 2022.

Faculty-Student Research in Spanish. Mountain Interstate Foreign Language Conference (MIFLC) (virtual), October 7-9, 2021.

La ovodonación dentro del marco neoliberal. Jornadas ALCE SXXI (virtual), July 12-16, 2021.

Las no-madres. Coloquio de ALCE SXXI (virtual). Maternidad, reproducción social y cuidados en la época neoliberal: descolonizando el imaginario patriarcal. March 6, 2021.

The Commercialization of Infertility: Quien quiere ser madre (2017), by Silvia Nanclares. Co-presented with Bailey Barlow (’23). MLA 2021 Convention (virtual), January 7-10, 2021

Maternofobia: el deseo de no ser madre. Jornadas ALCE SXXI (virtual), July 13-16, 2020.

Narrating Crossings: Mother/Daughter, Morocco/Spain. 50th Anniversary Northeastern Modern Language Association, Washington, DC, March 21-24, 2019.

Left Behind: Cultural Assimilation and the Mother/Daughter Relationship in Najat El Hachmi’s La hija extranjera (2015). Women in Transition: Crossing Borders, Crossing Boundaries Conference, St. Peter’s College, University of Oxford, UK, September 20-22, 2018.

From Mommyblogs to Blog-books. XXVI Congreso Anual de la Asociación Internacional de Literatura y Cultura Femenina Hispánica (AILCFH), Houston, TX, November 10-12, 2016.

Motherhood in Biutiful. 69th Annual Kentucky Foreign Language Conference, Lexington, Kentucky. April 14-16, 2016

Motherhood and Sexuality in Lo verdadero es un momento de lo falso. 64th Annual Mountain Interstate Foreign Language Conference (MIFLC), Furman University, Greenville, South Carolina, October 16-18, 2014.

The Blame Game: Lucia Etxebarria’s Beatriz y los cuerpos celestes. Motherhood Initiative for Research and Community Involvement (MIRCI) Conference on Demonizing Mothers / Demonized Motherhoods: Oppression and Resistance, Toronto, Ontario, October 4-5, 2013.

Parental Loss and Abandonment: Lucía Etxebarria’s Amor, curiosidad, Prozac y dudas. 62nd Mountain Interstate Foreign Language Conference, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC, October 18-20, 2012.

La representacion de la figura de la madre en Beatriz y los cuerpos celestes. Asociacion Hispanica de Humanidades VI Congreso Internacional, Madrid, Spain, June 28-30, 2012.

Being Good is Bad: the Ethics of Mothering According to El club de las malas madres by Lucía Etxebarria. AILFCH XX Congreso Anual, Austin, TX, October 14-16, 2010.

Mujer, inmigración e identidad: El ultimo patriarca de Najat El Hachmi. Asociación Hispánica de Humanidades IV Congreso Internacional, Sevilla, Spain, June 24-27, 2009.

Is Spain Still Spanish? Bigas Luna’s Yo soy la Juani. SCMLA, San Antonio, Texas, November 6-8, 2008. Winner of The 2008 Bill L. and Gerre D. Andrist Award for Hispanic Gender Studies.

From Feminism to Post-Feminism: Acts of Violence in Alicia Gimenez-Bartlett’s Ritos de muerte (1996). 61st Annual Kentucky Foreign Language Conference, Lexington, Kentucky, April 17-19, 2008. Co-presented with student Violeta Gomez.

Jamón, jamón and Yo soy la Juani: Bigas Luna’s Changing Notion of Spanishness. Second International Conference on Spanishness in the Spanish Novel and Cinema of the 20th-21st Century, Denton, Texas, March 14-15, 2008.

The Erotic Quest Romance: Lucía Etxebarria’s Nosotras que no somos como las demás. XXXIII Congreso Anual de Literaturas Hispanicas, Indiana, Pennsylvania, October 19-21, 2007.

Mami ¡qué buena estás! Representations of the Immigrant Woman in I love you baby. 60th Annual Kentucky Foreign Language Conference, Lexington, Kentucky, April 19-21, 2007.

Maternal Instinct Does Not Exist: Representations of Motherhood in Two Works by Lucía Etxebarria. XXXII Congreso Anual de Literaturas Hispánicas, Indiana, Pennsylvania, October 6-7, 2006.

¿En qué consiste ser madre?: Representaciones de la figura materna en Un milagro en equilibrio de Lucía Etxebarria. Asociación Hispánica de Humanidades IV Congreso Internacional, Madrid, Spain, June 24-27, 2006.

The Post Feminist Question in Almudena Grandes’s Atlas de geografía humana. 59th Annual Kentucky Foreign Language Conference, Lexington, Kentucky, April 19-21, 2006.

9/11, Technology, and Pornography: Un mal año para Miki by José Ovejero. 2006 Louisiana Conference on Hispanic Languages and Literatures, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, February 22-24, 2006.

Esther Tusquets: Women and Fairy Tales in El amor es un juego solitario. 58th Annual Kentucky Foreign Language Conference, Lexington, Kentucky, April 21-23, 2005.