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I earned my Ph.D. in Hispanic Literatures at Boston University. I hold a B.A. in Humanities with a mention in Psychology, Linguistics, and Literature from Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú. My academic field is early modern Hispanic studies, and my research focuses on Morisco and Aljamiado literature. I study the texts produced by Moriscos (Spanish Muslims converted to Christianity) during their final expulsion from Spain between 1609 and 1614. Currently, I am working on a comparative study of religious polemics between Old Christians and Moriscos in 17th-century Spain and Tunisia.

Degree Program University
Ph.D. Hispanic Language and Literature Boston University
Baccalaureate degree (foreign) Linguistics and Literature Universidad Católica del Peru
Baccalaureate degree (foreign) Psychology Universidad Católica del Peru

My Siena Experience

My Teaching Philosophy

Teaching allows me to interact with students while educating them. It’s a two-way connection, as I also learn from them both inside and outside the classroom. I love that teaching Spanish enables not only learning grammar and vocabulary but also working with content. This allows my students and myself to discuss several topics related to contemporary issues in the Spanish-speaking world. When I teach, I encourage students to go beyond what they have learned and to open their minds to other peoples and cultures. This helps them develop both critical thinking and creative ways of exploring and understanding Spanish-speaking languages, cultures, histories, economies, and sociopolitical issues.

What I Love About Siena

Siena is a great place to work and teach. The things that I love the most about it are the dedicated students, my awesome colleagues, the great ITS staff, the beautiful campus, and the long-term parking.

My Favorite Courses to Teach

I love teaching all levels of Spanish, but my favorite courses to teach are:
SPAN301 & SPAN302. Communication in Spanish I & II. In this class students are able to learn about cultural issues in the Spanish-speaking world, and work on fun projects like creating a news podcast or setting ap an altar de muertos
SPAN320. Introduction to Hispanic Literature. See an example of students' creative writing projects here.
SPAN355. Transatlantic Connections in the Spanish-Speaking World.
SPAN400. Special Topics in Spanish. Students in this class read, do research, and write about relevant topics in Spanish literature from the Medieval and Early Modern periods. For "Minorities in the Early Modern Spanish-Speaking World", students worked on an online project that can be seen here.





 

My Professional Experience

Year Title Organization
2017 - Now Associate Professor of Spanish Siena College
2011 - 2017 Assistant Professor of Spanish Siena College
2006 - 2011 Assistant Professor of Spanish Colby College
2005 - 2006 Lecturer of Spanish Brandeis University
1997 - 2005 Teaching Fellow Boston University
1994 - 1997 Teaching Assistant Universidad Católica del Perú

Current Research

My academic field is early modern Hispanic studies, and my research focuses on Morisco and Aljamiado literature, which are texts written in Spanish using Arabic letters. I study the literary production of Moriscos (Spanish Muslims forced to convert to Christianity in the 16th. century) during their final expulsion from Spain between 1609 and 1614. My main work focuses on a comparative study of religious polemics between Old Christians and Moriscos in 17th-century Spain and Tunisia. As a secondary project, I am currently working on jewelry and Muslim women in early modern Spanish literature. 

Articles & Book Reviews

  • (Book Review) Infante, Catherine. The Arts of Encounter: Christians, Muslims, and the Power of Images in Early Modern Spain
    Bulletin of the Comediantes
    2023
  • De Granada al Nuevo Mundo: El sujeto conquistado en 'El Nuevo Mundo descubierto por Colón', de Lope de Vega
    Hispanical
    2023
  • (Book Review) Green-Mercado, Mayte. Visions of Deliverance: Moriscos and the Politics of Prophecy in the Early Modern Mediterranean
    Symposium: A Quarterly Journal of Modern Literatures
    2021
  • Polémica anticristiana en el Norte de África: el caso de dos moriscos españoles del siglo XVII
    Transmodernity. Journal of Peripheral Cultural Production of the Luso-Hispanic World
    2020
  • (Book Review) Barbara Fuchs, Larissa Brewer-García, and Aaron J. Ilika, Eds. and Trans. "The Abencerraje" and "Ozmín and Daraja": Two Sixteenth-Century Novellas from Spain
    Sixteenth Century Journal
    2016
  • 'Toda obra loa y alaba a su Hacedor': de las transgresiones y subversiones del autor en 'La Lozana andaluza'
    Romance Notes
    2015
  • (Book Review) Anne Marie Wolf. Juan de Segovia and the Fight for Peace. Christians and Muslims in the Fifteenth Century
    Sixteenth Century Journal
    2015
  • El enemigo musulmán en 'El Abencerraje': Abindarráez, los moriscos y la personificación de la derrota
    e-Humanista
    2015
  • 'Viaje de Turquía': la representación de los turcos en un diálogo del siglo XVI
    Hispania Félix:Revista hispano-rumana de cultura y civilización de los Siglos de Oro
    2011

Awards & Distinctions

  • International Travel Faculty Fellowship
    Category: Research
    COTFD, Siena College, 2022
  • Summer Faculty Research Fellowship
    Category: Research
    COTFD, Siena College, 2019

  • Category: Research
    COTFD, Siena College, 2017
  • Visiting Researcher for the CORPI Project


    Category: Research
    CCHS - CSIC (Center for Human and Social Sciences-Council for Scientific Research) in Madrid, 2017
  • Information Literacy Faculty Development Grant
    Category: Teaching
    Standish Library, Siena College, 2016
  • Information Literacy Faculty Development Grant
    Category: Teaching
    Standish Library, Siena College, 2015
  • Summer Faculty Research Fellowship
    Category: Research
    COTFD, Siena College, 2015
  • Summer Fellowship for Curriculum Diversification
    Category: Teaching
    DAC, Siena College, 2014
  • Service Learning Grant
    Category: Teaching
    ACE, Siena College, 2013
  • Summer Faculty Research Fellowship
    Category: Research
    COTFD, Siena College, 2013
  • Summer Faculty Research Fellowship
    Category: Research
    COTFD, Siena College, 2012
  • Summer Institute, 'Networks and Knowledge: Synthesis and Innovation in the Muslim-Christian-Jewish Medieval Mediterranean'
    Category: Research
    NEH (National Endowment for the Humanities), 2012

Books & Book Chapters

  • Song and Social Change in Latin America
    Lexington Books
    2013

Presentations

  • Challenging the Empire: Theatrical Representations of Minority Communities in a Spanish 16th Century Piece
    2023
    Renaissance Society of America, San Juan, Puerto Rico
  • Christian and Muslim Female Converts in Early Modern Spanish Literature
    2023
    Arabic Poetry Cairo Genizah (APCG) Research Project Conference, Dublin, Republic of Ireland
  • Jewelry and Precious Stones: The Resignification of Female Luxurious Accessories in Early Modern Spain
    2023
    The Migration of Objects between Islam and Christianity in the Medieval and Early Modern Mediterranean: New Uses, New Meanings, Sarajevo, Bosnia
  • La blancura de la mano y las ajorcas: protagonistas musulmanas en la literatura de la premodernidad española
    2023
    Symposium in Early Modern Hispanic Studies, Syracuse, New York
  • La inversión de los ritos cristianos en la poesía morisca: un análisis de los elementos escatológicos en los romances de Juan Alonso Aragonés
    2023
    Society for the Renaissance and Baroque Hispanic Poetry, Chicago, Illinois
  • Soliloquios, travestismo, una cabeza artificial y una representación teatral morisca: el caso de la 'Comedia pastoral de Torcato'
    2022
    Society for the Renaissance and Baroque Hispanic Poetry, Cambridge, United Kingdom
  • Teaching Transatlantic Connections among Spanish-Speaking Countries
    2022
    LELACS (Lake Erie Latin American and Caribbean Studies), Saratoga Springs, New York
  • Spanish Muslims in Early Modern Iberia: The Construction of an Image through Spanish Christian Chronicles
    2021
    Renaissance Society of America, Virtual, Virtual
  • La inversión de los roles de género en una pieza del siglo XVI: el caso de la Comedia pastoril de Torcato
    2020
    AHCT (The Association of Hispanic Classical Theatre), Virtual, Virtual
  • La escritura religiosa en el exilio norteafricano de los moriscos españoles
    2019
    XX Congreso de la Asociación Internacional de Hispanistas, Jerusalem, Israel
  • La musa, la pluma y Orfeo: un poeta morisco en el exilio norteafricano
    2019
    Society for the Renaissance and Baroque Hispanic Poetry, Irvine, California
  • Moriscos en el exilio y polémica anticristiana: El caso de Ibrahim Taybili y Muhammad Alguazir
    2019
    Memory and Polemics: A Symposium on Moriscos, Syracuse, New York
  • The Female Other: Moriscas and Muslim Women in Early Modern Spain.
    2019
    Renaissance Society of America, Toronto, Canada-Ontario
  • Apuntes para un estudio de las influencias literarias españolas en el morisco Ibrahim Taybili y su poema anti-cristiano
    2017
    XVIIIè Congrès International d'Études Morisques, Tunis, Tunisia
  • Iberian and Transatlantic Subjects in Early Modern Spain: The Case of Lope de Vega's El Nuevo Mundo descubierto por Colón
    2017
    Spaces of Confrontation: 3rd International Conference in Transatlantic Studies, Boston, Massachusetts
  • Al-Andalus in the Eyes of a 16th Century Spanish Crypto-Muslim
    2016
    American Comparative Literature Association, Cambridge, Massachusetts
  • Poetry and Religious Polemics: Spanish Christian Influences on a Morisco Author in Exile
    2016
    Middle East Studies Association, Boston, Massachusetts
  • The Conquered Subject in Lope de Vega's La famosa comedia del Nuevo Mundo descubierto por Colón
    2016
    Sixteenth Century Society & Conference, Bruges, Belgium
  • The Representation of the Defeated Moriscos through the Portrayal of El Abencerraje's Abindarráez
    2015
    Middle East Studies Association, Denver, Colorado
  • Was Mediterranean Politics Determined by Religion?
    2015
    MEH/Med-Middle Eastern History/Mediterranean, Denver, Colorado
  • Épica y polémica religiosa en la Expulsión de los moros de España de Gaspar de Aguilar
    2015
    Society for the Renaissance and Baroque Hispanic Poetry, Amherst, Massachusetts
  • Author's Transgressions and Subversive Characters in Portrait of Lozana: The Lusty Andalusian Woman
    2014
    Renaissance Society of America, New York, New York
  • Connections between Old and New Christians: The Influence of Spanish Literary Works on Morisco Writers
    2014
    Sixteenth Century Society & Conference, New Orleans, Louisiana
  • La polémica anti-islámica tras la expulsión de los moriscos de España
    2014
    Kentucky Foreign Language Conference, Lexington, Kentucky
  • Crypto-Jews and Crypto-Muslims in Sixteenth Century Spain: Towards the Construction of an Image
    2013
    Renaissance Society of America, San Diego, California
  • La poesía al servicio de la polémica religiosa y la auto-legitimación de un autor morisco desde su exilio norteafricano
    2013
    Society for the Renaissance and Baroque Hispanic Poetry, Charlotte, Virginia
  • Expulsados: el problema de la identidad morisca a la luz de la 'Contradicción de los catorce artículos de la fe cristiana' de Ibrahim Taybili
    2012
    NEMLA (Northeastern Modern Language Association), Rochester, New York
  • La caída de Granada y la pérdida del Islam: el testimonio morisco del Mancebo de Arévalo
    2012
    Sixteenth Century Society & Conference, Cincinnati, Ohio
  • Realidad vs ficción: contradicciones en la representación de los hispano-musulmanes en la literatura del siglo XVI
    2012
    Kentucky Foreign Language Conference, Lexington, Kentucky