Bio

My teaching and research have always been closely connected and invigorate each other. I have taught Tutoring for Community Outreach, the Senior Capstone Seminar, Translation Workshop III in the MA in Global Communication and Applied Translation program, and courses at all levels in the Hispanic Studies program. In Tutoring for Community Outreach, undergraduate students with a wide variety of interests and MA students in the Applied SLA program work with pupils and teachers of world languages in the Pittsburgh Public Schools. Colleagues, students, and I have presented and published work to share experiences of this collaborative course model. My research in Hispanic literary and cultural studies focuses primarily on nineteenth- and twentieth-century Spanish writers and cross-cultural currents between Spain and the Americas. The Poet as Hero: Pedro Salinas and His Theater is a study of the senior member of the Spanish Generation of 1927 and his turn to writing plays in exile. My books Tristana by Benito Pérez Galdós and Abel Sánchez by Miguel de Unamuno are unabridged editions designed to promote students’ reading and critical thinking abilities in Spanish. Tristana explores attitudes and norms related to marriage in nineteenth-century Spain. Abel Sánchez centers on the passion of envy in the context of Spanish history. Another area of my research focuses on translation and the case of cacao and its introduction and dissemination through Europe via Spain.

Department Member Since 1986