Jessica Burke, assistant professor of Hispanic studies, received her Ph.D. in Spanish and Portuguese languages and cultures from Princeton University in 2005. Her research and teaching interests include Latin American literature and culture with a special emphasis on Mexico. She has taught at Princeton and Rutgers University and has lived and studied in Spain, Argentina and Mexico.
Virginia Gutierrez-Berner earned her bachelor's and master's degrees in Hispanic literature at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, and her Ph.D. in romance languages and literatures at SUNY Buffalo. Her research focuses on religious and literary texts in connection to politics and nation in Spain and Latin America. Gutierrez-Berner is particularly interested in studying the connections between Christian mysticism and the Inquisition in 16th-century Spain, and between 20th-century Latin American poetry and religious and national identities.
Hwangpo joined the Hamilton faculty in 1998, after earning a Ph.D. from Yale University. Her main area of specialization is the discourses of national identity in Argentina and Cuba in early 20th century. Her research interests are Latin American literature and culture, 20th century theatre, el sainete criollo, and essay. Her published articles include "Indagación del choteo: un llamado para el cambio en el modo de ser cubano," "José Antonio Ramos y la identidad nacional cubana: sentido, lenguaje y espacio," and "Los inmigrantes: el otro en el teatro argentino de principios del siglo XX."
Medina, who earned his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania, has been a Hamilton faculty member since 1968 and has served twice as chair of the department of Romance Languages and Literature. In addition to courses on Spanish language, literature and civilization, he is also responsible for Hamilton's offerings on Spanish art. Medina founded the Hamilton College Academic Year in Spain program and is co-founder of the Summer Institute of Hispanic Studies. Medina is the author of The "Psychological" Novels of Vicente Blasco Ibanez (1990); Introduction to Spanish Literature: an Analytical Approach (1982); Spanish Realism: The Theory and Practice of a Concept in the Nineteenth Century (1979); The Valencian Novels of Vicente Blasco Ibanez (1984); and From Sermon to Art: the Thesis Novels of Vicente Blasco Ibanez (1998). He has also published studies on Fernando de Herrera, Jose Antonio de Alarcon, Emilia Pardo Bazan. Benito Perez Galdos, Vicente Aleixandre and Miguel de Cervantes, as well as other articles on individual works of Blasco Ibanez. Besides serving as general director of the HCAYS since 1974 (except when not on campus), he has held the position of director-in-residence in Madrid eight times, having completed his final tour of duty in 2005-2006, prior to his official retirement on June 30, 2007.
Edna M. Rodríguez-Plate, associate professor of Hispanic Studies, completed her bachelor's degree at the University of Puerto Rico, did master’s work at Purdue University and her Ph.D. at Emory University. Her research and teaching begins with basic questions about identity, from individual identities to a collective social-national identity: How are identities constructed, represented and contested culturally, in films, literature and the mass media? How is ideology produced and how does it affect our sense of the world, our world? Rodríguez-Plate specializes in Spanish and Latin American Cinema, contemporary Latin American literature and culture, and Cuban studies. She is the author of Lydia Cabrera and the Construction of an Afro-Cuban Cultural Identity, and has written several articles on Cuban film and literature.
Joana Sabadell-Nieto specializes in the recent literatures of Spain with an emphasis on feminist and gender theory and on women's writing. She is a researcher at the UNESCO-funded Women and Literature Center of the University of Barcelona where she is studying community representations in postmodern women writers and filmmakers. Sabadell-Nieto has published several collections of essays; the most recent, Mujeres y naciones (Women and Nations), focuses on the uneasy relations between feminisms and nationhood, presents transnational approaches to politics and communities, and links political, anthropological, and philosophical theories with literary productions by Spanish women writers. She has also authored two books. Fragmentos de sentido. La identidad transgresora de Jaime Gil de Biedma examines the successful homographesis during the dictatorship of one of Spain's most famous poets; Desbordamientos/ Overflowings, is an in-depth analysis of feminist interventions today's culture. Sabadell-Nieto has a master's and Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania and a bachelor's in journalism from the Universidad de Navarra.
Luisa Briones earned her bachelor’s degree in modern philology from the Universidad Complutense of Madrid in Spain, her master’s in Hispanic Studies from Bowling Green State University in Ohio, and her Ph.D. in romance languages and literatures at Boston College. Her research and teaching interests include Iberian literature and cultures with a special emphasis on contemporary Spanish film and visual studies. Briones is particularly interested in exploring the development of Spanish identity (multicultural and gender aspects) through the relations between literature and cinema in the past 20 years. She teaches Spanish courses on language, culture, literature and cinema that foster a multicultural approach to Iberian and Latin American contemporary cultures, challenging the students to be critical on past and actual topics and promoting tolerance. She has taught at Bowling Green State University, Vanderbilt University, and Boston College.
Alessandra Chiriboga earned her bachelor's degree in literature and philosophy from Rafael Landívar University in Guatemala City, a master's in Latin American literature from the University of Pittsburgh. Her Ph.D. dissertation is titled “Desencuentros en la vanguardia literaria: Nicaragua, Guatemala y Costa Rica” (Perplexities of the Literary Avant-Garde: Nicaragua, Guatemala and Costa Rica) and reinterprets the multi-generic oeuvre of the Central American historical avant-garde as a problematic and highly contradictory aesthetic reterritorialization of Latin American modern cultural production. Chiriboga's specialization is in Central American Literature and cultural studies; her research and teaching interests include 19th and 20th-century Latin American literary and cultural studies, women writers across the Americas, and Spanish-language instruction.
Alejandra Olarte joins Hamilton as a Teaching Fellow in Hispanic Studies. She received a bachelor's degree in literature from Los Andes University in Bogotá, Colombia, and a master's degree in Hispanic literature from the State University of New York at Albany, where she is currently a doctoral student. Olarte's Ph.D. dissertation focuses on the role of imagination and reason in the fictional work of two contemporary writers: the Colombian Marvel Moreno and the English Angela Carter. Her areas of research and teaching interest are comparative literature, Colombian and Latin-American literature, and theory. Olarte has taught Spanish at different levels for more than five years.
Back to Hispanic Studies overview.
Hispanic studies is by definition a rich, interdisciplinary field. Hamilton's program offers a variety of courses and perspectives through which to explore Hispanic culture: language, literature, history, art and the social sciences. This gives the program wide appeal to students in other disciplines; they may wish to consider the five-course minor in Hispanic studies.
Among the College's many study-abroad programs, the Academic Year in Spain enjoys a reputation for spirited exploration of and immersion in the host culture. All Spanish majors are strongly encouraged to take part in the program, which is also offered in a single-semester format.
The Hispanic world is not uno mundo, but a tapestry of cultures and histories that defies labels and categories. It is the profound playfulness of Cervantes' Don Quijote, the social and artistic upheavals and contradictions of Latin America, the shifting complexity and energy of Latino life in the United States. Hispanic studies embraces the diversity of its subject.
The Hispanic studies curriculum is organized around three broad geographical and cultural themes: Latino, Latin American and Peninsular studies, reflecting the Hispanic experience in the United States, in Latin America and in Spain. The diverse, accomplished faculty builds on these perspectives to offer stimulating courses and culturally authentic viewpoints; classes are small, with intensive one-on-one guidance and discussion.
Many Hispanic studies majors enter the field of education, teaching at the high school level with a master's degree or at the college/university level with a Ph.D. Besides teaching, however, an advanced degree in Spanish or Hispanic studies opens the door to many career opportunities. Students work with professors to find programs that are a good "fit" for their academic interests, whether they are linguistic, cultural or literary.
Hispanic studies is by definition a rich, interdisciplinary field. Hamilton's program offers a variety of courses and perspectives through which to explore Hispanic culture: language, literature, history, art and the social sciences. This gives the program wide appeal to students in other disciplines; they may wish to consider the five-course minor in Hispanic studies.
Among the College's many study-abroad programs, the Academic Year in Spain enjoys a reputation for spirited exploration of and immersion in the host culture. All Spanish majors are strongly encouraged to take part in the program, which is also offered in a single-semester format.
The Hispanic world is not uno mundo, but a tapestry of cultures and histories that defies labels and categories. It is the profound playfulness of Cervantes' Don Quijote, the social and artistic upheavals and contradictions of Latin America, the shifting complexity and energy of Latino life in the United States. Hispanic studies embraces the diversity of its subject.
The Hispanic studies curriculum is organized around three broad geographical and cultural themes: Latino, Latin American and Peninsular studies, reflecting the Hispanic experience in the United States, in Latin America and in Spain. The diverse, accomplished faculty builds on these perspectives to offer stimulating courses and culturally authentic viewpoints; classes are small, with intensive one-on-one guidance and discussion.
Many Hispanic studies majors enter the field of education, teaching at the high school level with a master's degree or at the college/university level with a Ph.D. Besides teaching, however, an advanced degree in Spanish or Hispanic studies opens the door to many career opportunities. Students work with professors to find programs that are a good "fit" for their academic interests, whether they are linguistic, cultural or literary.
Hispanic studies is by definition a rich, interdisciplinary field. Hamilton's program offers a variety of courses and perspectives through which to explore Hispanic culture: language, literature, history, art and the social sciences. This gives the program wide appeal to students in other disciplines; they may wish to consider the five-course minor in Hispanic studies.
Among the College's many study-abroad programs, the Academic Year in Spain enjoys a reputation for spirited exploration of and immersion in the host culture. All Spanish majors are strongly encouraged to take part in the program, which is also offered in a single-semester format.
The Hispanic world is not uno mundo, but a tapestry of cultures and histories that defies labels and categories. It is the profound playfulness of Cervantes' Don Quijote, the social and artistic upheavals and contradictions of Latin America, the shifting complexity and energy of Latino life in the United States. Hispanic studies embraces the diversity of its subject.
The Hispanic studies curriculum is organized around three broad geographical and cultural themes: Latino, Latin American and Peninsular studies, reflecting the Hispanic experience in the United States, in Latin America and in Spain. The diverse, accomplished faculty builds on these perspectives to offer stimulating courses and culturally authentic viewpoints; classes are small, with intensive one-on-one guidance and discussion.
Many Hispanic studies majors enter the field of education, teaching at the high school level with a master's degree or at the college/university level with a Ph.D. Besides teaching, however, an advanced degree in Spanish or Hispanic studies opens the door to many career opportunities. Students work with professors to find programs that are a good "fit" for their academic interests, whether they are linguistic, cultural or literary.
Hispanic studies is by definition a rich, interdisciplinary field. Hamilton's program offers a variety of courses and perspectives through which to explore Hispanic culture: language, literature, history, art and the social sciences. This gives the program wide appeal to students in other disciplines; they may wish to consider the five-course minor in Hispanic studies.
Among the College's many study-abroad programs, the Academic Year in Spain enjoys a reputation for spirited exploration of and immersion in the host culture. All Spanish majors are strongly encouraged to take part in the program, which is also offered in a single-semester format.
The Hispanic world is not uno mundo, but a tapestry of cultures and histories that defies labels and categories. It is the profound playfulness of Cervantes' Don Quijote, the social and artistic upheavals and contradictions of Latin America, the shifting complexity and energy of Latino life in the United States. Hispanic studies embraces the diversity of its subject.
The Hispanic studies curriculum is organized around three broad geographical and cultural themes: Latino, Latin American and Peninsular studies, reflecting the Hispanic experience in the United States, in Latin America and in Spain. The diverse, accomplished faculty builds on these perspectives to offer stimulating courses and culturally authentic viewpoints; classes are small, with intensive one-on-one guidance and discussion.
Many Hispanic studies majors enter the field of education, teaching at the high school level with a master's degree or at the college/university level with a Ph.D. Besides teaching, however, an advanced degree in Spanish or Hispanic studies opens the door to many career opportunities. Students work with professors to find programs that are a good "fit" for their academic interests, whether they are linguistic, cultural or literary.
Hispanic studies is by definition a rich, interdisciplinary field. Hamilton's program offers a variety of courses and perspectives through which to explore Hispanic culture: language, literature, history, art and the social sciences. This gives the program wide appeal to students in other disciplines; they may wish to consider the five-course minor in Hispanic studies.
Among the College's many study-abroad programs, the Academic Year in Spain enjoys a reputation for spirited exploration of and immersion in the host culture. All Spanish majors are strongly encouraged to take part in the program, which is also offered in a single-semester format.
The Hispanic world is not uno mundo, but a tapestry of cultures and histories that defies labels and categories. It is the profound playfulness of Cervantes' Don Quijote, the social and artistic upheavals and contradictions of Latin America, the shifting complexity and energy of Latino life in the United States. Hispanic studies embraces the diversity of its subject.
The Hispanic studies curriculum is organized around three broad geographical and cultural themes: Latino, Latin American and Peninsular studies, reflecting the Hispanic experience in the United States, in Latin America and in Spain. The diverse, accomplished faculty builds on these perspectives to offer stimulating courses and culturally authentic viewpoints; classes are small, with intensive one-on-one guidance and discussion.
Many Hispanic studies majors enter the field of education, teaching at the high school level with a master's degree or at the college/university level with a Ph.D. Besides teaching, however, an advanced degree in Spanish or Hispanic studies opens the door to many career opportunities. Students work with professors to find programs that are a good "fit" for their academic interests, whether they are linguistic, cultural or literary.
