Research

Our distinguished faculty have published numerous single-authored works in prestigious national and international presses such as Yale University Press and the Colegio de México. Faculty cover a wide area of specializations and research interests, from Afro-Spanish American and Brazilian literature, French literature and law, and migration and transatlantic studies, to the music and songs of the Congolese diaspora across Europe. Their vast knowledge and bodies of work are influential in their fields.

See highlights of our faculty research below.

Robert Barsky

Robert Barsky, professor of French and comparative literature, is a 2022 John Simon Guggenheim Fellow whose multidisciplinary research combines social justice, human rights, and border and refugee studies with literary and artistic insights into the plight of vulnerable migrants. He has published widely, and his books on undocumented migrants, refugees, and the milieus of Noam Chomsky and Zellig Harris have been translated into 14 languages. He has also been actively involved in several national and international research projects supported by the Rockefeller Foundation, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, the governments of Canada, Québec, Belgium, and France, and the Dutch Royal Academy.

He is the director of the W.T. Bandy Center for Baudelaire and Modern French Studies.

Bio

Letizia Modena

Letizia Modena, associate professor of Italian, studies the intersection of literature and film with architecture and urban studies. Her research revolves around the interplay of place and identity. Her book, Italo Calvino’s Architecture of Lightness: The Utopian Imagination in an Age of Urban Crisis, reveals Calvino’s sustained dialogue with architects and urban planners in the 1960s and 70s.

Bio

N. Michelle Murray

Michelle Murray, associate professor of Spanish, focuses her research and teaching on contemporary Spanish literature and film. Her book, Home Away from Home: Immigrant Narratives, Domesticity, and Coloniality in Contemporary Spanish Culture, studies representations of immigrant women as domestic workers in contemporary Spain.

Bio

Emanuelle Oliveira-Monte

Emanuelle Oliveira-Monte, professor of Portuguese, researches Afro-Brazilian literature, race relations, race in comparative perspective, the Afro-Diasporic experience, the relationship between politics and literature, literature of human rights, and Brazilian cinema and popular culture. Her manuscript Writing Identity: The Politics of Contemporary Afro-Brazilian Literature examines the intricate connections between literary production and political action by focusing on the politics of the Brazilian black movement and the literature of a São Paulo-based group of Afro-Brazilian writers, the Quilombhoje.

Bio

Lynn Ramey

Lynn Ramey, professor of French, has expertise in French film, digital humanities, and digital media. She has published about the cultural interactions between Christians and Muslims in the Middle Ages and the development of racial consciousness in medieval European literature.

As a former computer programmer, she now works with others to create a series of immersive environments using a video game engine that allows users to play through moments of cultural interaction as medieval travelers. She has been awarded several major grants from the NEH and Mellon foundation to support her work.

Bio

Philip Rasico

Philip Rasico, professor of Spanish and Portuguese, is a linguist whose research focuses on the languages and dialects of the Iberian Peninsula together with their transoceanic projections. His publications include studies on the phonological development of the Catalan language during its earliest period; the edition and linguistic analysis of non-literary medieval documents written fully or partially in Catalan; linguistic variation and dialectal development in Catalan; the history, linguistic legacy, and cultural heritage of the Minorcan islanders who settled in British East Florida (New Smyrna and St. Augustine) in the latter half of the 18th century; and the etymological origin and development of Catalan toponyms.

Bio

Benigno Trigo

Benigno Trigo, Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Chair in the Humanities and professor of Spanish, researches Latin American literature, women’s writing, psychoanalysis, Puerto Rican studies, and autobiography. A most recent book, Malady and Genius: Self-Sacrifice in Puerto Rican Literature, examines the recurring theme of self-sacrifice in Puerto Rican literature during the second half of the twentieth and the beginning of the twenty-first centuries.

Bio

Holly Tucker

Holly Tucker, Mellon Foundation Chair in the Humanities and professor of French, focuses on how literature and medicine intersect in the early-modern period. Her work has been featured on NPR, The Atlantic, Scientific American, and journals specific to the field. Tucker is the recipient of the Ellen Gregg Ingall’s award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching and the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Research.

Bio

Faculty Accolades

Alexander Heard Distinguished Professor Award: Robert Barsky
Chancellor Faculty Fellow: N. Michelle Murray
Chancellor’s Cup: John L. Bingham, M. Fräncille Bergquist
Jeffrey Nordhaus Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching: Andres Zamora, Edward Friedman
Faculty Adviser Award: Victoria Burrus, María Paz Pintané, and John L. Bingham
Graduate Mentoring Award: Edward Friedman and Christina Karageorgeou-Bastea
Harriet S. Gilliam Award for Excellence in Teaching by a Lecturer or Senior Lecturer: Elena Olazagasti-Segovia
Madison Sarratt Prize for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching: M. Fräncille Bergquist
Ellen Gregg Ingalls Awards for Excellence in Classroom Teaching: Holly Tucker, Elena Olazagasti-Segovia
Outstanding Graduate Teaching Assistant Award: Clara Mengolini and Denise Callejas
Excellence in Teaching in a World Language: Elvira Aballi Morell and Carolina Rodríguez Tsouroukdissian

W.T. Bandy Center

close up of old maps and pamphlets W.T. Bandy Center for Baudelaire and Modern French Studies houses related exhibits, publications, and collections. A joint project between the department and the Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries, its core is the personal collection of the eminent Baudelaire scholar, William Thomas Bandy.

The scope and offerings in the collection have grown through the years and strive to promote research and outreach for the unique resources. Robert Barsky, professor of French and comparative literature, serves as the director of the center.

Afro-Hispanic Journal

cover of the afro-hispanic review The Afro-Hispanic Review, a bilingual journal of Afro-Hispanic literature and culture, is published by the department and is headed by editor William Luis, professor of Spanish and Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Chair in the Humanities.

Submissions of unpublished studies pertaining to the literature, history, and culture of the African presence and influence in the Hispanic world are encouraged. The journal also welcomes interdisciplinary work, book reviews, translations, creative writings, and relevant developments, of the highest quality, as they relate to the Afro-Hispanic experience.