Department of Spanish

Department of Spanish

Faculty and staff of the Department of Spanish


Department chair

Mercedes Tasende

Professor
Ph.D., University of Colorado

mercedes.tasende@wmich.edu
409 Sprau
(269) 387-3003
Office hours: Monday through Friday 8 am - 5 pm

Professor Tasende is a specialist in early twentieth-century Spanish literature. She has authored a book on the work of Valle-Inclán, Palimpsesto y subversión. Un estudio intertextual del El ruedo ibérico, as well as papers and articles on Pardo Bazán, Unamuno, Gómez de la Serna and Manuel Rivas. She is currently conducting research on Unamuno and Spanish Civil War literature. Professor Tasende is the department chair.

Administrative staff

Colleen Sante

Administrative Assistant
colleen.sante@wmich.edu
420 Sprau
(269) 387-3023
Office hours: Monday through Friday 8 am - 5 pm

Tammy Betz

Office Associate
tammy.betz@wmich.edu
410 Sprau
(269) 387-3001
Office hours: Monday through Friday 8 am - 5 pm

Faculty


John Benson

Professor
Ph.D., University of Wisconsin

john.benson@wmich.edu
513 Sprau
(269) 387-3016

Office hours:

-

Professor Benson is a specialist in contemporary Spanish American literature, the Colombian narrative in particular. He also has a strong interest in the popular culture of Mexico and Colombia. His research focuses on the work of Gabriel García Márquez and David Sánchez Juliao and includes papers and articles on both their literary and journalistic writings.


Gary Bigelow

Associate Professor
Ph.D., University of Pittsburgh

gary.bigelow@wmich.edu
516 Sprau
(269) 387-3024

Office hours:

-

Professor Bigelow specializes in Spanish theater and poetry of the Golden Age and contemporary Spanish theater. He has given papers or published articles on Calderón de la Barca, Tirso de Molina, José Luis Alonso de Santos, Paloma Pedrero, Fermín Cabal, and Ignacio del Moral, among others. He has translated a number of plays by contemporary peninsular authors. In addition to courses in peninsular literature, Professor Bigelow frequently teaches courses on Spanish film.


Michael Braun

Faculty Specialist
M.A., Western Michigan University

michael.braun@wmich.edu
418 Sprau
(269) 387-3009

Office hours:

-

Professor Braun joined the Spanish faculty full time in Fall 2004, after teaching Spanish methodology at Western on a part-time basis for four years. A specialist in Spanish pedagogy, he also has a recognized interest in Spanish poet Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer. With certification for secondary education, Professor Braun taught all five levels of Spanish for twelve years at Portage Northern High School, as well as implemented the International Baccalaureate curriculum there. Professor Braun serves as the faculty director of the WMU study abroad program in Burgos, Spain.


Robert Felkel

Professor
Ph.D., Michigan State University

felkel@wmich.edu
515 Sprau
(269) 387-3018

Office hours:

-

Professor Felkel specializes in medieval and Spanish Golden Age Literature, with a concentration on Don Quijote by Miguel de Cervantes. A member of the Cervantes Society of America, he has published a number of articles on the Quijote in journals such as Anuario de Letras and Anales Cervantinos, and he has produced an English translation of José Antonio Maravall's Utopía y contrautopía en el Quijote. Professor Felkel has also published articles on aspects of contemporary Spanish culture and he is currently working on a study of homiletics in the Quijote, as well as a book-length manuscript he provisionally plans to title A Tour of Don Quijote.


Seidy Flórez

sflorez@wmich.edu
509 Sprau
(269) 387-3039

Office hours:

-

Carolyn Harris

Professor
Ph.D., University of Iowa

carolyn.harris@wmich.edu
514 Sprau
(269) 387-3017

Office hours:

-

Professor Harris is a specialist in contemporary peninsular literature and women's studies. Her research focuses on twentieth-century and current Spanish theater with an emphasis on women writers. She has written on the works of Antonio Gala, Antonio Buero Vallejo, Concha Romero, Carmen Resino, Paloma Pedrero, Itziar Pascual and others. She has published a monograph, El teatro de Antonio Gala, as well as many articles and book reviews. She is currently a member of the editorial board for Estreno:  Cuadernos del Teatro Español Contemporáneo. Professor Harris serves the department as a Spanish undergraduate advisor.


Habra Hedy

hedy.habra@wmich.edu
815 Sprau
(269) 387-3105

Office hours:

-


Antonio Isea

Associate Professor
Ph.D., University of Colorado

antonio.isea@wmich.edu
512 Sprau
(269) 387-3041

Office hours:

-

Professor Isea is a specialist in Venezuelan literature. His publications include articles on the relationship between historiography and fiction, as well as on topics such as race and nation-building in Latin America. His book on Denzil Romero, Historiografía y ficción en la narrativa de Denzil Romero, is the first major study of the work of that important Venezuelan author. Professor Isea is currently preparing a collection of essays on varied topics of modern Venezuelan literature.


Irma López

Professor
Ph.D., University of Kansas

irma.lopez@wmich.edu
511 Sprau
(269) 387-3014

Office hours:

-

Study Abroad office hours:

-

Professor López specializes in contemporary Spanish American narrative, particularly women writers and Mexican literature. She has authored a book, Historia, escritura e identidad: La novelística de María Luisa Puga, as well as articles and papers on the work of Rosario Ferré, Carlos Fuentes, Mayra Montero, Elena Poniatowska, Sara Sefchovich, and others. Professor López serves the department as a study abroad advisor.


Michael Millar

Assistant Professor
Ph.D, University of Michigan

michael.millar@wmich.edu
415 Sprau
(269) 387-3026

Office hours:

-

Professor Millar is a specialist in Central American cultures. He has published several articles on the literatures of Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica and the Central American diaspora in the United States.  His book, Spaces of Representation (Peter Lang, 2005), examines the role of literary, political and historical discourse in the struggle for social justice in Guatemala.  His current research investigates the relationship between current social conditions of the region and an emergent dystopian tendency in contemporary Central American literature. Professor Millar is a study abroad advisor.


Katherine Millar

katherine.millar@wmich.edu
509 Sprau
(269) 387-3039

Office hours:

-


Patricia Montilla

Associate Professor
Ph.D., University of Chicago

patricia.montilla@wmich.edu
511 Sprau
(269) 387-3040

Office hours:

-

Professor Montilla specializes in contemporary Spanish American poetry and U.S. Latino literature and culture. She has written articles and book reviews on the works of Oliverio Girondo, Matías Montes Huidobro, Judith Ortiz Cofer, Carlota Caulfield, Mariano Brull, and Eugenio Florit.  Most recently, she authored a book, Parody and Poetics of Subversion in Oliverio Girondo, and a panoramic study on contemporary Puerto Rican literature of the United States for a companion to U.S. Latino letters. Professor Montilla is the faculty director of the study abroad program in Querétaro.


Holly Nibert

Associate Professor
Ph.D., University of Illinois

holly.nibert@wmich.edu
509 Sprau
(269) 387-3012

Office hours:

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Professor Nibert is a specialist in Spanish linguistics with particular interests in phonology and phonetics, dialectology, second language acquisition, and second language teaching methodology. She has published various articles on Spanish intonation, including its description with autosegmentalmetrical theory and its acquisition by second language learners.  She is co-author of the 5th edition of ¡Arriba!, Prentice Hall's best selling beginning Spanish language textbook. She is director of the first-year Spanish language program and trains the new teaching assistants in the department.


Pablo Pastrana-Pérez

Assistant Professor
Ph.D., University of Wisconsin

pablo.pastrana@wmich.edu
415 Sprau
(269) 387-2955

Office hours:

-

Professor Pastrana is a specialist in Spanish medieval literature and historical linguistics. His papers and publications to date have focused on fifteenth and sixteenth-century texts, particularly the short chivalric narratives. Currently, he is collaborating with professor Catherine Julien (History) on a scholarly edition of 61 documents pertaining to Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca's exploration of the South-American interior between 1540 and 1544, a project funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. He is the Chair of the Medieval Institute Board and the senior editor of the Journal of Medieval Iberian Studies. Professor Pastrana is the advisor for Graduate Studies in Spanish.


Mariola Pérez de la Cruz

Master Faculty Specialist
Ph.D., Universidad de Alcalá

mariola.perez@wmich.edu
512 Sprau
(269) 387-3015

Office hours:

-

Professor Pérez de la Cruz specializes in Spanish philology and twentieth-century Spanish literature. Her research focuses on post-war Spanish novel and theater, which she studies from a sociohistorical perspective. She is currently working on editions of unpublished plays and narrative works censored under the Franco dictatorship. This book is soon to be published by ADE in Spain. Professor Pérez de la Cruz coordinates the intermediate-level Spanish language program and serves the department as community outreach coordinator. She also serves at the faculty director of the summer study abroad program in Santander, Spain.


Mercedes Tasende

tasende@wmich.edu
409 Sprau
(269) 387-3003
Office hours: By appointment


Benjamín Torres

Professor
Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania

benjamin.torres@wmich.edu
514 Sprau
(269) 387-3028

Office hours:

-

Professor Torres is a specialist in Spanish American literature, particularly in Caribbean narrative. He has authored three books (Gabriel García Márquez o la alquimia del incesto, Literatura e ideología and Para llegar a la Isla Verde de Edgardo Rodríguez Julía), as well as many articles, papers, and book reviews. He has a strong interest in Caribbean popular culture and in U.S. Latino literature, as evidenced by both his teaching and publications. Professor Torres has edited four works by Edgardo Rodríguez Julía: Elogio de la fonda (Playor, 2001), Mapa de una pasión literaria (EDUPR, 2003), Musarañas de domingo (EDUPR, 2005), La renuncia del héroe Baltasar (FCE, 2006). Professor Torres serves the department as a Spanish undergraduate advisor.


Robert Vann

Associate Professor
Ph.D., University of Texas-Austin

robert.vann@wmich.edu
R. Vann Website
515 Sprau
(269) 387-3042

Office hours:

-

Professor Vann is a specialist in Spanish sociolinguistics and pragmatics, with emphasis on the Spanish of Catalonia. He has published numerous articles regarding the relationship between language, identity, and ideology in Barcelona. Professor Vann has a strong interest in the relationship between the Spanish language and the broader culture of the Hispanic world. His current research involves a critical edition of the first known spoken language corpus of colloquial conversations in Spanish between individuals from naturally-occurring social groups in Barcelona.  The purpose of this research is to create a resource for the study of the unique characteristics of the Spanish spoken in Catalonia.  Professor Vann serves as the coordinator of the student exchange program in Lleida, Spain.

Spring 2008 graduate assistants


 

Department of Spanish
420 Sprau Tower
Western Michigan University
Kalamazoo MI 49008-5338 USA
(269) 387-3023 | (269) 387-3103 Fax
spanish@wmich.edu