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A.B. English Literature 1991, Columbia University
M.A. Spanish Literature and Language 1997, Boston College
Ph.D. Hispanic Literatures and Languages 2003, University of California at Berkeley

Research and teaching interests:

My research focuses on the confluence of Romance, Hebrew, and Arabic literary cultures in Medieval Spain. My book, Framing Iberia: Maqamat and Frametale Narratives in Medieval Spain (Brill, 2007), is a study of the intersection of Christianity, Islam, and Judaism as reflected in story collections written in Castilian, Catalan, Latin, Hebrew, and Arabic. My current project is on the Hispanic cultural context of the Hebrew literature of Christian Spain. I also have a secondary interest in Sephardic culture and Ladino literature, and have taught courses in Hispano-Hebrew and post-expulsion Sephardic literatures.

Agenda:

21 February 2010: "500 Years of Ladino Literature, An Overview." Temple Beth Israel, Eugene, Oregon
24 April 2010: Medieval Studies Workshop: Purity and Danger, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey
13-16 May 2010: 45th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, Kalamazooo, Michigan

Courses taught:

Summer 2009: SPAN 316 (Term 2)
Fall 2009: SPAN 316, SPAN 607 Classics of Medieval Castilian Literature
Winter 2010: SPAN 407 Love
Spring 2010: SPAN 316, SPAN 407 Spain and Islam

SPAN 150: Cultures of the Spanish-Speaking World
SPAN 316: Survey of Peninsular Literature > 1800
SPAN 333: Introduction to Narrative
SPAN 407: Wine, Women, and Song: Medieval Iberian Poetry
SPAN 407: Women Writers of Medieval Spain
SPAN 407: Love
SPAN 407: Spain and Islam
SPAN 407/507 Kabbalah
SPAN 407/507: Story Collections from Medieval Spain
SPAN 407/507: Jewish Literature of Medieval Spain
SPAN 407/507: Sephardic Culture
RL 623: Culture, Canons, and Commoditication

Open Educational Resources (OER)

Teaching units on Medieval and Renaissance Spanish Literature (annotated editions of short texts and excerpts with study questions and key terminology). Open Access, Creative Commons-licensed.

Publications

Authored Book

Framing Iberia: Maqamat and Frametale Narratives in Medieval Spain. Leiden: Brill, 2007.

• Winner of the 2009 La corónica International Book Award for the best monograph published on Medieval Hispanic Languages, Literatures, and Cultures.
• Reviewed by Ryan Szpiech in Medieval Review, 5 September 2008.
• Reviewed by Auroria Salvatierra Ossorio in Sefarad 68.1 (2008): 233-36.
• Reviewed by Jonathan Burgoyne in Speculum 83.4 (2008): 1052-53.

Edited Volumes

Wine, Women and Song: Hebrew and Arabic Literature in Medieval Iberia. (co-edited with Michelle M. Hamilton and Sarah J. Portnoy) (Newark, DE: Juan de la Cuesta Hispanic Monographs, 2004).

• Reviewed by Daniel Salas Díaz in Dissidences 1.1 (2005)
• Reviewed by Gregory Kaplan in Bulletin of Spanish Studies 84.2 (2007): 256-57.

Articles in Peer-Reviewed Journals

“Reconquest Colonialism and Andalusi Narrative Practice in the Conde Lucanor of Don Juan Manuel.” diacritics 36.3-4 (2006): 87-103. [self-archived post-print version at UO Scholars'  Bank]

“Reading Jaume Roig's Spill and the Libro de buen amor in the Iberian maqama tradition.” Bulletin of Spanish Studies 83.5 (2006): 597-616.[self-archived post-print version at UO Scholars' Bank]

“Don Yllán and the Egyptian Sorceror: Vernacular commonality and literary diversity in medieval Castile.” Sefarad 65.2 (2005): 413-433. [self-archived post-print version at UO Scholars' Bank]

“The Performativity of Ibn al-Muqaffa’s Kalila wa-Dimna and Al-Maqamat al-luzumiyya of al-Saraqusti.” Journal of Arabic Literature 34 (2003): 178-89. [self-archived post-print version at UO Scholars' Bank]

Essay in Edited Collection

"Toward a History of Hispano-Hebrew Literature in its Romance Context." eHumanista 14 (2010): 178-209.

“Is Spain's Hebrew Literature ‘Spanish?’” Spain’s Multicultural Legacies: Studies in Honor of Samuel G. Armistead. Eds. Adrienne Martin and Cristina Martínez-Carazo. Newark, DE: Juan de la Cuesta Hispanic Monographs, 2008. 315-31.  [self-archived post-print version at UO Scholars' Bank]

“Between Sacred and Secular: Abraham ibn Ezra and the Song of Songs.” Wine, Women and Song: Hebrew and Arabic Literature in Medieval Iberia. Eds. Michelle H. Hamilton, Sarah J. Portnoy, and David A. Wacks. Newark, DE: Juan de la Cuesta Hispanic Monographs, 2004. 47-58. [self-archived post-print version at UO Scholars' Bank]

Scholarly Translation

“Ibn Sahula's Tale of the Egyptian Sorcerer: A Thirteenth-Century Don Yllán.” eHumanista 4 (2004): 1-12.

Selected Book Reviews

Decter, Jonathan. Iberian Jewish Literature: Between al-Andalus and Christian Europe. Indiana UP, 2007. Calíope 14.1 (2008): 139-42.

Díaz-Mas, Paloma. Sephardim: The Jews from Spain. Ed. and trans. George K. Zucker. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007. Bulletin of the Society for Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies 33.1 (2008): 33-34.

Barletta, Vincent. Covert Gestures: Crypto-Islamic Literature as Cultural Practice in Early Modern Spain. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2005. Hispania 89.1 (2006): 50-52.

Work in progress