Scholarship

Research and Publications on Hispanic Literature
A complete list of my publications and presentations may by found in my curriculum vitae. Most of my scholarly work has focused on Spanish narrative written during the latter half of the nineteenth and first half of the twentieth century. I chose to do my dissertation on Juan Valera because his novels and critical writings on literary aesthetics intrigued me. A lover of the classics and a voracious reader, he maintained his independence from both the romantic and realist movements that dominated in nineteenth-century Spain following the death of Fernando VII in 1833. Considered by most scholars to be the finest prose writer of his generation, Valera sought to reconcile differences and to pursue the ideal, hence the title of my published dissertation, El idealismo sintético de don Juan Valera (sintético used in the sense of synthesis).

In addition to Valera, I have conducted research on the narrative of other nineteenth-century novelists such as Pedro Antonio de Alarcón, Emilia Pardo Bazán, and Leopoldo Alas. Since the late nineties, I have also been working with the novels of Miguel de Unamuno and Ramón del Valle-Inclán, two brilliant writers identified with the Generation of 1898. If you are proficient in Spanish, you are welcome to read my study of Unamuno's Abel Sánchez, a novel in which Unamuno carries out a penetrating analysis of the emotion of envy as it pertains to the protagonist and, by extension, the Spanish people.

I also thoroughly enjoy contemporary Spanish American narrative, and have worked fairly extensively with writers such as Jorge Luis Borges, Alejo Carpentier, Gabriel García Márquez, and Isabel Allende. One of the wonderful features about teaching at a small liberal arts institution like Juniata is that I enjoy the freedom to teach Hispanic literature from any country and period without having to worry about treading on someone else's disciplinary turf.

My most recent publication is an analysis of a Spanish novel, El lápiz del carpintero (The Carpenter's Pencil), that was published by Galician novelist, poet, and journalist Manuel Rivas in 1998. While it received a favorable critical and popular reception in Spain, and has been translated to English, it has been almost completely overlooked by scholars. Rivas deftly mixes various novelistic sub-genres (historical, testimonial, sentimental, magical real) to narrate a compelling story that both entertains and enlightens. I would highly recommend it, especially for those interested in contemporary Spain. Spanish readers are invited to review my analysis of the intratextual and intertextual elements of this very fine novel.

2001 Sabbatical in Madrid, Spain
I spent my first semester conducting research in Spain's Biblioteca Nacional (National Library) on the topic "Ideological and Aesthetic Shift in Fin de Siglo Spain (1890-1905)." It was very enlightening to explore how the intellectual and literary paradigms evolved through studying the writings of four of Spain's leading realist novelists and the top four novelists from the Generation of 1898, their literary successors, during the same fifteen-year period.

Ultimately, I decided not to pursue my original proposal of publishing a critical monograph for reasons outlined in my Sabbatical Report, although it was an extremely beneficial experience for me. Prior to my next sabbatical, I hope to develop a special topics course on one of the authors, Benito Pérez Galdós, and I also made some major changes in my Contemporary Spain and Contemporary Spanish Novel courses thanks to the materials and information that I acquired during the sabbatical.

One other positive outcome of the sabbatical was the Bookend Seminar that I presented for the Juniata community in the spring of 2002, titled "One of 19th-Century Europe's Best Kept Secrets: The Renaissance of the Spanish Novel." Loosely related to my sabbatical research, it was the first and to date the only presentation that I have prepared for a general audience on my literary research. Click here if you would like to peruse the adapted version that was published in the 2002 edition of Juniata Voices.

Oral Proficiency Testing
I attended an Oral Proficiency Testing workshop offered by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) at the University of North Carolina during the summer of 1994 and became a certified oral proficiency tester in 1996. As a literary specialist, it was an excellent professional development experience and has made me a more effective language instructor by providing a useful framework for conceptualizing language acquisition and by foregrounding the global functions or tasks (e.g., asking and answering questions on familiar topics, narrating and describing in the past, hypothesizing) that students should be able to accomplish as they develop their language proficiency. If you are interested in learning more about the ACTFL proficiency guidelines or the Oral Proficiency Interview, the instrument used to measure one's oral proficiency, click here to visit ACTFL's web site.

Music as a Teaching Resource
It is pretty tough to find someone who will admit to not liking music. One of the many virtues of music is that we will listen to it over and over again without getting bored, and repetition is unfortunately essential for language learning. Music can be used from Spanish 101 to the most advanced courses to develop listening comprehension skills, to practice pronunciation, to teach and review grammar points, and to serve as the basis for speaking and writing activities.

I have used music throughout my teaching career, and still take my guitar to my language courses every semester for three or four classes to teach students some classic Spanish songs such as Cielito lindo, La bamba, and La llorona. However, since about 1996, I have been working more systematically to exploit the myriad possibilities that Hispanic music offers, including its status as cultural realia that can provide insight and understanding into its socio-cultural context. There is an amazing diversity of musical styles and forms, ranging from Mexican corridos and Caribbean salsa to the Argentine tango and Spanish flamenco, to say nothing of classical and pop idioms as well as some fascinating hybrids.

I have offered several workshops on music as a teaching resource, and my former colleague Miguel Lacorte and I collaborated on two presentations and a publication that makes the case for music and provides examples for how it can be utilized to enhance the language learning experience. I have also incorporated a variety of music as cultural texts in my new course Art & Activism in Latin America, including songs by Rubén Blades, Víctor Jara, and Pablo Milanés.

Upcoming 2007-08 Sabbatical Research Project
In order to integrate more fully my professional development, teaching, and service interests, I have decided to branch out from my work with Spanish narrative and study contemporary Guatemalan testimonial narrative. My approved sabbatical proposal is titled "Terror and Hope in Contemporary Guatemalan Testimonial Narrative." I plan to work with both documentary and fictionalized testimonio, and will analyze the imagery and the narrative strategies employed to interpret and represent events which took place during Guatemala's bloody 36-year civil war, which came to a formal end with the signing of peace accords in December of 1996. In preparation for my sabbatical, I will present a paper in April of 2007 in Guatemala City at the 15th International Conference on Central American Literature, titled "La novelización del testimonio en La otra cara."